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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19174-8.txt b/19174-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5b5549 --- /dev/null +++ b/19174-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5190 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man Who Rocked the Earth, by +Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Man Who Rocked the Earth + +Author: Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +Release Date: September 4, 2006 [EBook #19174] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _The_ MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH + + By ARTHUR TRAIN AND ROBERT WILLIAMS WOOD + + + + + Reprint Edition 1974 by Arno Press Inc. + A New York Times Company + New York--1975 + + SCIENCE FICTION ADVISORY EDITORS + _R. Reginald_ + _Douglas Menville_ + + Copyright © 1915 by Doubleday, Page & Company + + _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign + languages, including the Scandinavian_ + + Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Robert W. Wood + + Reprinted from a copy in The Library + of the University of California, Riverside + + Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data + + Train, Arthur Cheney, 1875-1945. + The man who rocked the earth. + + (Science fiction) + Reprint of the ed. published by Doubleday, Page, + Garden City, N. Y. + + I. Wood, Robert Williams, 1868-1955, joint author. + II. Title. III. Series. + PZ3.T682Mak6 [PS3539.R23] 813'.5'2 74-16523 + ISBN 0-405-06315-6 + + + + +THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH + + + _"I thought, too, of the first and most significant realization + which the reading of astronomy imposes: that of the exceeding + delicacy of the world's position; how, indeed, we are dependent + for life, and all that now is, upon the small matter of the tilt + of the poles; and that we, as men, are products, as it were, not + only of earth's precarious position, but of her more precarious + tilt."_--W. L. COMFORT, Nov., 1914 + +[Illustration: INSTANTLY THE EARTH BLEW UP LIKE A CANNON--UP INTO THE +AIR, A THOUSAND MILES UP] + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +By July 1, 1916, the war had involved every civilized nation upon the +globe except the United States of North and of South America, which had +up to that time succeeded in maintaining their neutrality. Belgium, +Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Austria Hungary, Lombardy, and +Servia, had been devastated. Five million adult male human beings had +been exterminated by the machines of war, by disease, and by famine. Ten +million had been crippled or invalided. Fifteen million women and +children had been rendered widows or orphans. Industry there was none. +No crops were harvested or sown. The ocean was devoid of sails. +Throughout European Christendom women had taken the place of men as +field hands, labourers, mechanics, merchants, and manufacturers. The +amalgamated debt of the involved nations, amounting to more than +$100,000,000,000, had bankrupted the world. Yet the starving armies +continued to slaughter one another. + +Siberia was a vast charnel-house of Tartars, Chinese, and Russians. +Northern Africa was a holocaust. Within sixty miles of Paris lay an army +of two million Germans, while three million Russians had invested +Berlin. In Belgium an English army of eight hundred and fifty thousand +men faced an equal force of Prussians and Austrians, neither daring to +take the offensive. + +The inventive genius of mankind, stimulated by the exigencies of war, +had produced a multitude of death-dealing mechanisms, most of which had +in turn been rendered ineffective by some counter-invention of another +nation. Three of these products of the human brain, however, remained +unneutralized and in large part accounted for the impasse at which the +hostile armies found themselves. One of these had revolutionized warfare +in the field, and the other two had destroyed those two most important +factors of the preliminary campaign--the aeroplane and the submarine. +The German dirigibles had all been annihilated within the first ten +months of the war in their great cross-channel raid by Pathé contact +bombs trailed at the ends of wires by high-flying French planes. This, +of course, had from the beginning been confidently predicted by the +French War Department. But by November, 1915, both the allied and the +German aerial fleets had been wiped from the clouds by Federston's +vortex guns, which by projecting a whirling ring of air to a height of +over five thousand feet crumpled the craft in mid-sky like so many +butterflies in a simoon. + +The second of these momentous inventions was Captain Barlow's device for +destroying the periscopes of submarines, thus rendering them blind and +helpless. Once they were forced to the surface such craft were easily +destroyed by gun fire or driven to a sullen refuge in protecting +harbours. + +The third, and perhaps the most vital, invention was Dufay's +nitrogen-iodide pellets, which when sown by pneumatic guns upon the +slopes of a battlefield, the ground outside intrenchments, or round the +glacis of a fortification made approach by an attacking army impossible +and the position impregnable. These pellets, only the size of No. 4 bird +shot and harmless out of contact with air, became highly explosive two +minutes after they had been scattered broadcast upon the soil, and any +friction would discharge them with sufficient force to fracture or +dislocate the bones of the human foot or to put out of service the leg +of a horse. The victim attempting to drag himself away inevitably +sustained further and more serious injuries, and no aid could be given +to the injured, as it was impossible to reach them. A field well planted +with such pellets was an impassable barrier to either infantry or +cavalry, and thus any attack upon a fortified position was doomed to +failure. By surprise alone could a general expect to achieve a victory. +Offensive warfare had come almost to a standstill. + +Germany had seized Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. Italy had annexed +Dalmatia and the Trentino; and a new Slav republic had arisen out of +what had been Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Roumania, +Montenegro, Albania, and Bulgaria. Turkey had vanished from the map of +Europe; while the United States of South America, composed of the +Spanish-speaking South American Republics, had been formed. The +mortality continued at an average of two thousand a day, of which 75 per +cent. was due to starvation and the plague. Maritime commerce had ceased +entirely, and in consequence of this the merchant ships of all nations +rotted at the docks. + +The Emperor of Germany, and the kings of England and of Italy, had all +voluntarily abdicated in favour of a republican form of government. +Europe and Asia had run amuck, hysterical with fear and blood. As well +try to pacify a pack of mad and fighting dogs as these frenzied myriads +with their half-crazed generals. They lay, these armies, across the fair +bosom of the earth like dying monsters, crimson in their own blood, yet +still able to writhe upward and deal death to any other that might +approach. They were at a deadlock, yet each feared to make the first +overtures for peace. There was, in actuality, no longer even an English +or a German nation. It was an orgy of homicide, in which the best of +mankind were wantonly destroyed, leaving only the puny, the +feeble-minded, the deformed, and the ineffectual to perpetuate the race. + + + + +I + + +It was three minutes past three postmeridian in the operating room of +the new Wireless Station recently installed at the United States Naval +Observatory at Georgetown. Bill Hood, the afternoon operator, was +sitting in his shirt sleeves with his receivers at his ears, smoking a +corncob pipe and awaiting a call from the flagship _Lincoln_ of the +North Atlantic Patrol with which, somewhere just off Hatteras, he had +been in communication a few moments before. The air was quiet. + +Hood was a fat man, and so of course good-natured; but he was serious +about his work and hated all interfering amateurs. Of late these +wireless pests had become particularly obnoxious, as practically +everything was sent out in code and they had nothing with which to +occupy themselves. But it was a hot day and none of them seemed to be at +work. On one side of his desk a tall thermometer indicated that the +temperature of the room was 91 degrees Fahrenheit; on the other a big +clock, connected with some extraneous mechanism by a complicated system +of brass rods and wires, ticked off the minutes and seconds with a +peculiar metallic self-consciousness, as if aware of its own importance +in being the official timepiece, as far as there was an official +timepiece, for the entire United States of America. + +Hood from time to time tested his converters and detector, and then +resumed his non-official study of the adventures of a great detective +who pursued the baffling criminal by the aid of all the latest +scientific discoveries. Hood thought it was good stuff, although at the +same time he knew, of course, that it was rot. He was a practical man of +little imagination, and, though the detective did not interest him +particularly, he liked the scientific part of the stories. He was +thrifty, of Scotch-Irish descent, and at two minutes past three had +never had an adventure in his life. At three minutes past three he began +his career as one of the celebrities of the world. + +As the minute hand of the official clock dropped into its slot somebody +called the Naval Observatory. The call was so faint as to be barely +audible, in spite of the fact that Hood's instrument was tuned for a +three-thousand-metre wave. Supposing quite naturally that the person +calling had a shorter wave, he gradually cut out the inductance of his +receiver; but the sound faded out entirely, and he returned to his +original inductance and shunted in his condenser, upon which the call +immediately increased in volume. Evidently the other chap was using a +big wave, bigger than Georgetown. + +Hood puckered his brows and looked about him. Lying on a shelf above his +instrument was one of the new ballast coils that Henderson had used with +the long waves from lightning flashes, and he leaned over and connected +the heavy spiral of closely wound wire, throwing it into his circuit. +Instantly the telephones spoke so loud that he could hear the shrill cry +of the spark even from where the receivers lay beside him on the table. +Quickly fastening them to his ears he listened. The sound was clear, +sharp, and metallic, and vastly higher in pitch than a ship's call. It +couldn't be the _Lincoln_. + +"By gum!" muttered Hood. "That fellow must have a twelve-thousand-metre +wave length with fifty kilowatts behind it, sure! There ain't another +station in the world but this can pick him up!" + +"NAA--NAA--NAA," came the call. + +Throwing in his rheostat he sent an "O.K" in reply, and waited +expectantly, pencil in hand. A moment more and he dropped his pencil in +disgust. + +"Just another bug!" he remarked aloud to the thermometer. "Ought to be +poisoned! What a whale of a wave length, though!" + +For several minutes he listened intently, for the amateur was sending +insistently, repeating everything twice as if he meant business. + +"He's a jolly joker all right," muttered Hood, this time to the clock. +"Must be pretty hard up for something to do!" + +Then he laughed out loud and took up the pencil again. This amateur, +whoever he was, was almost as good as his detective story. The "bug" +called the Naval Observatory once more and began repeating his entire +message for the third time. + +"To all mankind"--he addressed himself modestly--"To all mankind--To all +mankind--I am the dictator--of human destiny--Through the earth's +rotation--I control--day and night--summer and winter--I command +the--cessation of hostilities and--the abolition of war upon the +globe--I appoint the--United States--as my agent for this purpose--As +evidence of my power I shall increase the length of the day--from +midnight to midnight--of Thursday, July 22d, by the period of five +minutes.--PAX." + +The jolly joker, having repeated thus his extraordinary message to all +mankind, stopped sending. + +"Well, I'll be hanged!" gasped Bill Hood. Then he wound up his magnetic +detector and sent an answering challenge into the ether. + +"Can--the--funny--stuff!" he snapped. "And tune out--or--we'll +revoke--your license!" + +"What a gall!" he grunted, folding up the yellow sheet of pad paper upon +which he had taken down the message to all mankind and thrusting it into +his book for a marker. "All the fools aren't dead yet!" + +Then he picked up the _Lincoln_ and got down to real work. The "bug" and +his message passed from memory. + + + + +II + + +The following Thursday afternoon a perspiring and dusty stranger from +St. Louis, who, with the Metropolitan Art Museum as his objective, was +trudging wearily through Central Park, New York City, at two o'clock, +paused to gaze with some interest at the obelisk known as Cleopatra's +Needle. The heat rose in shimmering waves from the asphalt of the +roadway, but the stranger was used to heat and he was conscientiously +engaged in the duty of seeing New York. Opposite the Museum he seated +himself upon a bench in the shade of a faded dogwood and wiped the +moisture from his eyes. The glare from the unprotected boulevards was +terrific. Under these somewhat unfavourable conditions he was occupied +in studying the monument of Egypt's past magnificence when he felt a +slight dragging sensation. It was indefinable and had no visual +concomitant. But it was as though the brakes were being gently applied +to a Pullman train. He was the only human being in the neighbourhood; +not even a policeman was visible; and the experience gave him a creepy +feeling. Then to his amazement Cleopatra's Needle slowly toppled from +its pedestal and fell with a crash across the roadway. At first he +thought it an optical illusion and wiped his eyes again, but it was +nothing of the kind. The monument, which had a moment before pointed to +the zenith, now lay shattered in three pieces upon the softening +concrete of the drive. The stranger arose and examined the fragments of +the monolith, one of which lay squarely across the road, barring all +passage. Round the pedestal were scattered small pieces of broken +granite, and from these, after looking about cautiously, he chose one +with care and placed it in his pocket. + +"Gosh!" he whispered to himself as he hurried toward Fifth Avenue. +"That'll just be something to tell 'em at home! Eh, Bill?" + +The dragging sensation experienced by the tourist from St. Louis was +felt by many millions of people all over the world, but, as in most +countries it occurred coincidently with pronounced earthquake shocks and +tremblings, for the most part it passed unnoticed as a specific, +individual phenomenon. + +Hood, in the wireless room at Georgetown, suddenly heard in his +receivers a roar like that of Niagara and quickly removed them from his +ears. He had never known such statics. He was familiar with electrical +disturbances in the ether, but this was beyond anything in his +experience. Moreover, when he next tried to use his instruments he +discovered that something had put the whole apparatus out of commission. +About an hour later he felt a pronounced pressure in his eardrums, which +gradually passed off. The wireless refused to work for nearly eight +hours, and it was still recalcitrant when he went off duty at seven +o'clock. He had not felt the quivering of the earth round Washington, +and being an unimaginative man he accepted the other facts of the +situation philosophically. The statics would pass, and then Georgetown +would be in communication with the rest of the world again, that was +all. At seven o'clock the night shift came in, and Hood borrowed a +pipeful of tobacco from him and put on his coat. + +"Say, Bill, did you feel the shock?" asked the shift, hanging up his hat +and taking a match from Hood. + +"No," answered the latter, "but the statics have put the machine on the +blink. She'll come round all right in an hour or so. The air's gummy +with ions. Shock, did you say?" + +"Sure. Had 'em all over the country. Say, the boys at the magnetic +observatory claim their compass shifted east and west instead of north +and south, and stayed that way for five minutes. Didn't you feel the air +pressure? I should worry! And say, I just dropped into the +Meteorological Department's office and looked at the barometer. She'd +jumped up half an inch in about two seconds, wiggled round some, and +then come back to normal. You can see the curve yourself if you ask +Fraser to show you the self-registering barograph. Some doin's, I tell +you!" + +He nodded his head with an air of importance. + +"Take your word for it," answered Hood without emotion, save for a +slight annoyance at the other's arrogation of superior information. +"'Tain't the first time there's been an earthquake since creation." And +he strolled out, swinging to the doors behind him. + +The night shift settled himself before the instruments with a look of +dreary resignation. + +"Say," he muttered aloud, "you couldn't jar that feller with a +thirteen-inch bomb! He wouldn't even rub himself!" + +Hood, meantime, bought an evening paper and walked slowly to the +district where he lived. It was a fine night and there was no particular +excitement in the streets. His wife opened the door. + +"Well," she greeted him, "I'm glad you've come home at last. I was plumb +scared something had happened to you. Such a shaking and rumbling and +rattling I never did hear! Did you feel it?" + +"I didn't feel nothin'!" answered Bill Hood. "Some one said there was a +shock, that was all I heard about it. The machine's out of kilter." + +"They won't blame you, will they?" she asked anxiously. + +"You bet they won't!" he replied. "Look here, I'm hungry. Are the +waffles ready?" + +"Have 'em in a jiffy!" she smiled. "You go in and read your paper." + +He did as he was directed, and seated himself in a rocker under the +gaslight. After perusing the baseball news he turned back to the front +page. The paper was a fairly late edition, containing up-to-the-minute +telegraphic notes. In the centre column, alongside the announcement of +the annihilation of three entire regiments of Silesians by the explosion +of nitroglycerine concealed in dummy gun carriages, was the following: + + CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE FALLS + + EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS FAMOUS MONUMENT + + SHOCKS FELT HERE AND ALL OVER U. S. + + Washington was visited by a succession of earthquake shocks early + this afternoon, which, in varying force, were felt throughout the + United States and Europe. Little damage was done, but those having + offices in tall buildings had an unpleasant experience which they + will not soon forget. A peculiar phenomenon accompanying this + seismic disturbance was the variation of the magnetic needle by over + eighty degrees from north to east and an extraordinary rise and fall + of the barometer. All wireless communication had to be abandoned, + owing to the ionizing of the atmosphere, and up to the time this + edition went to press had not been resumed. Telegrams by way of + Colon report similar disturbances in South America. In New York the + monument in Central Park known as Cleopatra's Needle was thrown from + its pedestal and broken into three pieces. The contract for its + repair and replacement has already been let. The famous monument was + a present from the Khedive of Egypt to the United States, and + formerly stood in Alexandria. The late William H. Vanderbilt + defrayed the expense of transporting it to this country. + +Bill Hood read this with scant interest. The Giants had knocked the +Braves' pitcher out of the box, and an earthquake seemed a small matter. +His mind did not once revert to the mysterious message from Pax the day +before. He was thinking of something far more important. + +"Say, Nellie," he demanded, tossing aside the paper impatiently, "ain't +those waffles ready yet?" + + + + +III + + +On that same evening, Thursday, July 22d, two astronomers attached to +the Naval Observatory sat in the half darkness of the meridian-circle +room watching the firmament sweep slowly across the aperture of the +giant lens. The chamber was as quiet as the grave, the two men rarely +speaking as they noted their observations. Paris might be taken, Berlin +be razed, London put to the torch; a million human beings might be blown +into eternity, or the shrieks of mangled creatures lying in heaps before +pellet-strewn barbed-wire entanglements rend the summer night; great +battleships of the line might plunge to the bottom, carrying their crews +with them; and the dead of two continents rot unburied--yet unmoved the +stars would pursue their nightly march across the heavens, cruel day +would follow pitiless night, and the careless earth follow its +accustomed orbit as though the race were not writhing in its death +agony. Gazing into the infinity of space human existence seemed but the +scum upon a rainpool, human warfare but the frenzy of insectivora. +Unmindful of the starving hordes of Paris and Berlin, of plague-swept +Russia, or of the drowned thousands of the North Baltic Fleet, these two +men calmly studied the procession of the stars--the onward bore of the +universe through space, and the spectra of newborn or dying worlds. + +It was a suffocatingly hot night and their foreheads reeked with sweat. +Dim shapes on the walls of the room indicated what by day was a tangle +of clockwork and recording instruments, connected by electricity with +various buttons and switches upon the table. The brother of the big +clock in the wireless operating room hung nearby, its face illuminated +by a tiny electric lamp, showing the hour to be eleven-fifty. +Occasionally the younger man made a remark in a low tone, and the elder +wrote something on a card. + +"The 'seeing' is poor to-night," said Evarts, the younger man. "The +upper air is full of striae and, though it seems like a clear night, +everything looks dim--a volcanic haze probably. Perhaps the Aleutian +Islands are in eruption again." + +"Very likely," answered Thornton, the elder astronomer. "The shocks this +afternoon would indicate something of the sort." + +"Curious performance of the magnetic needle. They say it held due east +for several minutes," continued Evarts, hoping to engage his senior in +conversation--almost an impossibility, as he well knew. + +Thornton did not reply. He was carefully observing the infinitesimal +approach of a certain star to the meridian line, marked by a thread +across the circle's aperture. When that point of light should cross the +thread it would be midnight, and July 22, 1916, would be gone forever. +Every midnight the indicating stars crossed the thread exactly on time, +each night a trifle earlier than the night before by a definite and +calculable amount, due to the march of the earth around the sun. So they +had crossed the lines in every observatory since clocks and telescopes +had been invented. Heretofore, no matter what cataclysm of nature had +occurred, the star had always crossed the line not a second too soon or +a second too late, but exactly on time. It was the one positively +predictable thing, foretellable for ten or for ten thousand years by a +simple mathematical calculation. It was surer than death or the tax-man. +It was absolute. + +Thornton was a reserved man of few words--impersonal, methodical, +serious. He spent many nights there with Evarts, hardly exchanging a +phrase with him, and then only on some matter immediately concerned with +their work. Evarts could dimly see his long, grave profile bending over +his eyepiece, shrouded in the heavy shadows across the table. He felt a +great respect, even tenderness, for this taciturn, high-principled, +devoted scientist. He had never seen him excited, hardly ever aroused. +He was a man of figures, whose only passion seemed to be the "music of +the spheres." + +A long silence followed, during which Thornton seemed to bend more +intently than ever over his eyepiece. The hand of the big clock slipped +gradually to midnight. + +"There's something wrong with the clock," said Thornton suddenly, and +his voice sounded curiously dry, almost unnatural. "Telephone to the +equatorial room for the time." + +Puzzled by Thornton's manner Evarts did as instructed. + +"Forty seconds past midnight," came the reply from the equatorial +observer. + +Evarts repeated the answer for Thornton's benefit, looking at their own +clock at the same time. It pointed to exactly forty seconds past the +hour. He heard Thornton suppress something like an oath. + +"There's something the matter!" repeated Thornton dumbly. "Aeta isn't +within five minutes of crossing. Both clocks can't be wrong!" + +He pressed a button that connected with the wireless room. + +"What's the time?" he called sharply through the nickel-plated +speaking-tube. + +"Forty-five seconds past the hour," came the answer. Then: "But I want +to see you, sir. There's something queer going on. May I come in?" + +"Come!" almost shouted Thornton. + +A moment later the flushed face of Williams, the night operator, +appeared in the doorway. + +"Excuse me, sir," he stammered, "but something fierce must have +happened! I thought you ought to know. The Eiffel Tower has been trying +to talk to us for over two hours, but I can't get what he's saying." + +"What's the matter--atmospherics?" snapped Evarts. + +"No; the air _was_ full of them, sir--shrieking with them you might say; +but they've stopped now. The trouble has been that I've been jammed by +the Brussels station talking to the Belgian Congo--same wave length--and +I couldn't tune Brussels out. Every once in a while I'd get a word of +what Paris was saying, and it's always the same word--'_heure_.' But +just now Brussels stopped sending and I got the complete message of the +Eiffel Tower. They wanted to know our time by Greenwich. I gave it to +'em. Then Paris said to tell you to take your transit with great care +and send result to them immediately----" + +The ordinarily calm Thornton gave a great suspiration and his face was +livid. "Aeta's just crossed--we're five minutes out! Evarts, am I crazy? +Am I talking straight?" + +Evarts laid his hand on the other's arm. + +"The earthquake's knocked out your transit," he suggested. + +"And Paris--how about Paris?" asked Thornton. He wrote something down on +a card mechanically and started for the door. "Get me the Eiffel Tower!" +he ordered Williams. + +The three men stood motionless, as the wireless man sent the Eiffel +Tower call hurtling across the Atlantic: + +"ETA--ETA--ETA." + +"All right," whispered Williams, "I've got 'em." + +"Tell Paris that our clocks are all out five minutes according to the +meridian." + +Williams worked the key rapidly, and then listened. + +"The Eiffel Tower says that their chronometers also appear to be out by +the same time, and that Greenwich and Moscow both report the same thing. +Wait a minute! He says Moscow has wired that at eight o'clock last +evening a tremendous aurora of bright yellow light was seen to the +northwest, and that their spectroscopes showed the helium line only. He +wants to know if we have any explanation to offer----" + +"Explanation!" gasped Evarts. "Tell Paris that we had earthquake shocks +here together with violent seismic movements, sudden rise in barometer, +followed by fall, statics, and erratic variation in the magnetic +needle." + +"What does it all mean?" murmured Thornton, staring blankly at the +younger man. + +The key rattled and the rotary spark whined into a shriek. Then silence. + +"Paris says that the same manifestations have been observed in Russia, +Algeria, Italy, and London," called out Williams. "Ah! What's that? +Nauen's calling." Again he sent the blue flame crackling between the +coils. "Nauen reports an error of five minutes in their meridian +observations according to the official clocks. And hello! He says Berlin +has capitulated and that the Russians began marching through at +daylight--that is about two hours ago. He says he is about to turn the +station over to the Allied Commissioners, who will at once assume +charge." + +Evarts whistled. + +"How about it?" he asked of Thornton. + +The latter shook his head gravely. + +"It may be--explainable--or," he added hoarsely, "it may mean the end of +the world." + +Williams sprang from his chair and confronted Thornton. + +"What do you mean?" he almost shouted. + +"Perhaps the universe is running down!" said Evarts soothingly. "At any +rate, keep it to yourself, old chap. If the jig is up there's no use +scaring people to death a month or so too soon!" + +Thornton grasped an arm of each. + +"Not a word of this to anybody!" he ground out through compressed lips. +"Absolute silence, or hell may break loose on earth!" + + + + +IV + + +Free translation of the Official Report of the Imperial Commission of +the Berlin Academy of Science to the Imperial Commissioners of the +German Federated States: + + The unprecedented cosmic phenomena which occurred on the 22d and + 27th days of the month of July, and which were felt over the entire + surface of the globe, have left a permanent effect of such + magnitude on the position of the earth's axis in space and the + duration of the period of the rotation, that it is impossible to + predict at the present time the ultimate changes or modifications + in the climatic conditions which may follow. This commission has + considered most carefully the possible causes that may have been + responsible for this catastrophe--(_Weltunfall_)--and by + eliminating every hypothesis that was incapable of explaining all + of the various disturbances, is now in a position to present two + theories, either one of which appears to be capable of explaining + the recent disturbances. + + The phenomena in question may be briefly summarized as follows; + + 1. THE YELLOW AURORA. In Northern Europe this appeared suddenly on + the night of July 22d as a broad, faint sheaf--(_Lichtbündel_)--of + clear yellow light in the western sky. Reports from America show + that at Washington it appeared in the north as a narrow shaft of + light, inclined at an angle of about thirty degrees with the + horizon, and shooting off to the east. Near the horizon it was + extremely brilliant, and the spectroscope showed that the light was + due to glowing helium gas. + + The Potsdam Observatory reported that the presence of sodium has + been detected in the aurora; but this appears to have been a mistake + due to the faintness of the light and the circumstance that no + comparison spectrum was impressed on the plate. On the photograph + made at the Washington Observatory the helium line is certain, as a + second exposure was made with a sodium flame; and the two lines are + shown distinctly separated. + + 2. THE NEGATIVE ACCELERATION. This phenomenon was observed + to a greater or less extent all over the globe. It was especially + marked near the equator; but in Northern Europe it was noted by only + a few observers, though many clocks were stopped and other + instruments deranged. There appears to be no doubt that a force of + terrific magnitude was applied in a tangential direction to the + surface of the earth, in such a direction as to oppose its axial + rotation, with the effect that the surface velocity was diminished + by about one part in three hundred, resulting in a lengthening of + the day by five minutes, thirteen and a half seconds. + + The application of this brake--(_Bremsekraft_), as we may term + it--caused acceleration phenomena to manifest themselves precisely + as on a railroad train when being brought to a stop. The change in + the surface speed of the earth at the equator has amounted to about + 6.4 kilometres an hour; and various observations show that this + change of velocity was brought about by the operation of the unknown + force for a period of time of less than three minutes. The negative + acceleration thus represented would certainly be too small to + produce any marked physiological sensations, and yet the reports + from various places indicate that they were certainly observed. The + sensations felt are usually described as similar to those + experienced in a moving automobile when the brake is very gently + applied. + + Moreover, certain destructive actions are reported from localities + near the equator--chimneys fell and tall buildings swayed; while + from New York comes the report that the obelisk in Central Park was + thrown from its pedestal. It appears that these effects were due to + the circumstance that the alteration of velocity was propagated + through the earth as a wave similar to an earthquake wave, and that + the effects were cumulative at certain points--a theory that is + substantiated by reports that at certain localities, even near the + equator, no effects were noted. + + 3. TIDAL WAVES. These were observed everywhere and were + very destructive in many places. In the Panama Canal, which is near + the equator and which runs nearly east and west, the sweep of the + water was so great that it flowed over the Gatun Lock. On the + eastern coasts of the various continents there was a recession of + the sea, the fall of the tide being from three to five metres below + the low-water mark. On the western coasts there was a corresponding + rise, which in some cases reached a level of over twelve metres. + + That the tidal phenomena were not more marked and more destructive + is a matter of great surprise, and has been considered as evidence + that the retarding force was not applied at a single spot on the + earth's surface, but was a distributed force, which acted on the + water as well as on the land, though to a less extent. It is + difficult, however, to conceive of a force capable of acting in such + a way; and Björnson's theory of the magnetic vortex in the ether has + been rejected by this commission. + + 4. ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. Some time after the appearance + of the yellow aurora a sudden rise in atmospheric pressure, followed + by a gradual fall considerably below the normal pressure, was + recorded over the entire surface of the globe. Calculations based on + the time of arrival of this disturbance at widely separated points + show that it proceeded with the velocity of sound from a point + situated probably in Northern Labrador. The maximum rise of pressure + recorded was registered at Halifax, the self-recording barographs + showing that the pressure rose over six centimetres in less than + five minutes. + + 5. SHIFT IN DIRECTION OF THE EARTH'S AXIS. The axis of the + earth has been shifted in space by the disturbance and now points + almost exactly toward the double star Delta Ursæ Minoris. This + change appears to have resulted from the circumstance that the force + was applied to the surface of the globe in a direction not quite + parallel to the direction of rotation, the result being the + development of a new axis and a shift in the positions of the poles, + which it will now be necessary to rediscover. + + It appears that these most remarkable cosmic phenomena can be + explained in either of two ways: they may have resulted from an + explosive or volcanic discharge from the surface of the earth, or + from the oblique impact of a meteoric stream moving at a very high + velocity. It seems unlikely that sufficient energy to bring about + the observed changes could have been developed by a volcanic + disturbance of the ordinary type; but if radioactive forces are + allowed to come into play the amount of energy available is + practically unlimited. + + It is difficult, however, to conceive of any way in which a sudden + liberation of atomic energy could have been brought about by any + terrestrial agency; so that the first theory, though able to account + for the facts, seems to be the less tenable of the two. The meteoric + theory offers no especial difficulty. The energy delivered by a + comparatively small mass of finely divided matter, moving at a + velocity of several hundred kilometres a second--and such a velocity + is by no means unknown--would be amply sufficient to alter the + velocity of rotation by the small amount observed. + + Moreover, the impact of such a meteoric stream may have + developed a temperature sufficiently high to bring about + radioactive changes, the effect of which would be to expel + helium and other disintegration products at cathode-ray + velocity--(_Kathoden-Strahlen-Fortpflanzung-Geschwindigkeit_)--from + the surface of the earth; and the recoil exerted by this expulsion + would add itself to the force of the meteoric impact. + + The presence of helium makes this latter hypothesis not altogether + improbable, while the atmospheric wave of pressure would result at + once from the disruption of the air by the passage of the meteor + stream through it. Exploration of the region in which it seems + probable that the disturbance took place will undoubtedly furnish + the data necessary for the complete solution of the problem." + [Pp. 17-19.] + + + + +V + + +At ten o'clock one evening, shortly after the occurrences heretofore +described, an extraordinary conference occurred at the White House, +probably the most remarkable ever held there or elsewhere. At the long +table at which the cabinet meetings took place sat six gentlemen in +evening dress, each trying to appear unconcerned, if not amused. At the +head of the table was the President of the United States; next to him +Count von Koenitz, the German Ambassador, representing the Imperial[1] +German Commissioners, who had taken over the reins of the German +Government after the abdication of the Kaiser; and, on the opposite +side, Monsieur Emil Liban, Prince Rostoloff, and Sir John Smith, the +respective ambassadors of France, Russia, and Great Britain. The sixth +person was Thornton, the astronomer. + +[Footnote 1: The Germans were unwilling to surrender the use of the +words "Empire" and "Imperial," even after they had adopted a republican +form of government.] + +The President had only succeeded in bringing this conference about after +the greatest effort and the most skilful diplomacy--in view of the +extreme importance which, he assured them all, he attached to the +matters which he desired to lay before them. Only for this reason had +the ambassadors of warring nations consented to meet--unofficially as it +were. + +"With great respect, your Excellency," said Count von Koenitz, "the +matter is preposterous--as much so as a fairy tale by Grimm! This +wireless operator of whom you speak is lying about these messages. If he +received them at all--a fact which hangs solely upon his word--he +received them _after_ and not _before_ the phenomena recorded." + +The President shook his head. "That might hold true of the first +message--the one received July 19th," said he, "but the second message, +foretelling the lengthening of July 27th, _was delivered on that day, +and was in my hands before the disturbances occurred_." + +Von Koenitz fingered his moustache and shrugged his shoulders. It was +clear that he regarded the whole affair as absurd, undignified. + +Monsieur Liban turned impatiently from him. + +"Your Excellency," he said, addressing the President, "I cannot share +the views of Count von Koenitz. I regard this affair as of the most +stupendous importance. Messages or no messages, extraordinary natural +phenomena are occurring which may shortly end in the extinction of human +life upon the planet. A power which can control the length of the day +can annihilate the globe." + +"You cannot change the facts," remarked Prince Rostoloff sternly to the +German Ambassador. "The earth has changed its orbit. Professor +Vaskofsky, of the Imperial College, has so declared. There is some +cause. Be it God or devil, there is a cause. Are we to sit still and do +nothing while the globe's crust freezes and our armies congeal into +corpses?" He trembled with agitation. + +"Calm yourself, _mon cher Prince_!" said Monsieur Liban. "So far we have +gained fifteen minutes and have lost nothing! But, as you say, whether +or not the sender of these messages is responsible, there is a cause, +and we must find it." + +"But how? That is the question," exclaimed the President almost +apologetically, for he felt, as did Count von Koenitz, that somehow an +explanation would shortly be forthcoming that would make this conference +seem the height of the ridiculous. "I have already," he added hastily, +"instructed the entire force of the National Academy of Sciences to +direct its energies toward the solution of these phenomena. Undoubtedly +Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and France are doing the same. The +scientists report that the yellow aurora seen in the north, the +earthquakes, the variation of the compass, and the eccentricities of the +barometer are probably all connected more or less directly with the +change in the earth's orbit. But they offer no explanation. They do not +suggest what the aurora is nor why its appearance should have this +effect. It, therefore, seems to me clearly my duty to lay before you all +the facts as far as they are known to me. Among these facts are the +mysterious messages received by wireless at the Naval Observatory +immediately preceding these events." + +"_Post hoc, ergo propter hoc!_" half sneered Von Koenitz. + +The President smiled wearily. + +"What do you wish me to do?" he asked, glancing round the table. "Shall +we remain inactive? Shall we wait and see what may happen?" + +"No! No!" shouted Rostoloff, jumping to his feet. "Another week and we +may all be plunged into eternity. It is suicidal not to regard this +matter seriously. We are sick from war. And perhaps Count von Koenitz, +in view of the fall of Berlin, would welcome something of the sort as an +honourable way out of his country's difficulties." + +"Sir!" cried the count, leaping to his feet. "Have a care! It has cost +Russia four million men to reach Berlin. When we have taken Paris we +shall recapture Berlin and commence the march of our victorious eagles +toward Moscow and the Winter Palace." + +"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Be seated, I implore you!" exclaimed the +President. + +The Russian and German ambassadors somewhat ungraciously resumed their +former places, casting at each other glances of undisguised contempt. + +"As I see the matter," continued the President, "there are two distinct +propositions before you: The first relates to how far the extraordinary +events of the past week are of such a character as to demand joint +investigation and action by the Powers. The second involves the cause of +these events and their connection with and relation to the sender of the +messages signed Pax. I shall ask you to signify your opinion as to each +of these questions." + +"I believe that some action should be taken, based on the assumption +that they are manifestations of one and the same power or cause," said +Monsieur Liban emphatically. + +"I agree with the French Ambassador," growled Rostoloff. + +"I am of opinion that the phenomena should be the subject of proper +scientific investigation," remarked Count von Koenitz more calmly. "But +as far as these messages are concerned they are, if I may be pardoned +for saying so, a foolish joke. It is undignified to take any cognizance +of them." + +"What do you think, Sir John?" asked the President, turning to the +English Ambassador. + +"Before making up my mind," returned the latter quietly, "I should like +to see the operator who received them." + +"By all means!" exclaimed Von Koenitz. + +The President pressed a button and his secretary entered. + +"I had anticipated such a desire on the part of all of you," he +announced, "and arranged to have him here. He is waiting outside. Shall +I have him brought in?" + +"Yes! Yes!" answered Rostoloff. And the others nodded. + +The door opened, and Bill Hood, wearing his best new blue suit and +nervously twisting a faded bicycle cap between his fingers, stumbled +awkwardly into the room. His face was bright red with embarrassment and +one of his cheeks exhibited a marked protuberance. He blinked in the +glare of the electric light. + +"Mr. Hood," the President addressed him courteously, "I have sent for +you to explain to these gentlemen, who are the ambassadors of the great +European Powers, the circumstances under which you received the wireless +messages from the unknown person describing himself as 'Pax.'" + +Hood shifted from his right to his left foot and pressed his lips +together. Von Koenitz fingered the waxed ends of his moustache and +regarded the operator whimsically. + +"In the first place," went on the President, "we desire to know whether +the messages which you have reported were received under ordinary or +under unusual conditions. In a word, could you form any opinion as to +the whereabouts of the sender?" + +Hood scratched the side of his nose in a manner politely doubtful. + +"Sure thing, your Honour," he answered at last. "Sure the conditions was +unusual. That feller has some juice and no mistake." + +"Juice?" inquired Von Koenitz. + +"Yare--current. Whines like a steel top. Fifty kilowatts sure, and maybe +more! And a twelve-thousand-metre wave." + +"I do not fully understand," interjected Rostoloff. "Please explain, +sir." + +"Ain't nothin' to explain," returned Hood. "He's just got a hell of a +wave length, that's all. Biggest on earth. We're only tuned for a +three-thousand-metre wave. At first I could hardly take him at all. I +had to throw in our new Henderson ballast coils before I could hear +properly. I reckon there ain't another station in Christendom can get +him." + +"Ah," remarked Von Koenitz. "One of your millionaire amateurs, I +suppose." + +"Yare," agreed Hood. "I thought sure he was a nut." + +"A what?" interrupted Sir John Smith. + +"A nut," answered Hood. "A crank, so to speak." + +"Ah, 'krank'!" nodded the German. "Exactly--a lunatic! That is precisely +what I say!" + +"But I don't think it's no nut now," countered Hood valiantly. "If he is +a bug he's the biggest bug in all creation, that's all I can say. He's +got the goods, that's what he's got. He'll do some damage before he gets +through." + +"Are these messages addressed to anybody in particular?" inquired Sir +John, who was studying Hood intently. + +"Well, they are and they ain't. Pax--that's what he calls +himself--signals NAA, our number, you understand, and then says what he +has to say to the whole world, care of the United States. The first +message I thought was a joke and stuck it in a book I was reading, +'_Silas Snooks_'----" + +"What?" ejaculated Von Koenitz impatiently. + +"Snooks--man's name--feller in the book--nothing to do with this +business," explained the operator. "I forgot all about it. But after the +earthquake and all the rest of the fuss I dug it out and gave it to Mr. +Thornton. Then on the 27th came the next one, saying that Pax was +getting tired of waiting for us and was going to start something. That +came at one o'clock in the afternoon, and the fun began at three sharp. +The whole observatory went on the blink. Say, there ain't any doubt in +your minds that it's _him_, is there?" + +Von Koenitz looked cynically round the room. + +"There is not!" exclaimed Rostoloff and Liban in the same breath. + +The German laughed. + +"Speak for yourselves, Excellencies," he sneered. His tone nettled the +wireless representative of the sovereign American people. + +"Do you think I'm a liar?" he demanded, clenching his jaw and glaring at +Von Koenitz. + +The German Ambassador shrugged his shoulders again. Such things were +impossible in a civilized country--at Potsdam--but what could you +expect---- + +"Steady, Hood!" whispered Thornton. + +"Remember, Mr. Hood, that you are here to answer our questions," said +the President sternly. "You must not address his Excellency, Baron von +Koenitz, in this fashion." + +"But the man was making a monkey of me!" muttered Hood. "All I say is, +look out. This Pax is on his job and means business. I just got another +call before I came over here--at nine o'clock." + +"What was its purport?" inquired the President. + +"Why, it said Pax was getting tired of nothing being done and wanted +action of some sort. Said that men were dying like flies, and he +proposed to put an end to it at any cost. And--and----" + +"Yes! Yes!" ejaculated Liban breathlessly. + +"And he would give further evidence of his control over the forces of +nature to-night." + +"Ha! Ha!" Von Koenitz leaned back in amusement. "My friend," he +chuckled, "you--are--the 'nut'!" + +What form Hood's resentment might have taken is problematical; but as +the German's words left his mouth the electric lights suddenly went out +and the windows rattled ominously. At the same moment each occupant of +the room felt himself sway slightly toward the east wall, on which +appeared a bright yellow glow. Instinctively they all turned to the +window which faced the north. The whole sky was flooded with an +orange-yellow aurora that rivalled the sunlight in intensity. + +"What'd I tell you?" mumbled Hood. + +The Executive Mansion quivered, and even in that yellow light the faces +of the ambassadors seemed pale with fear. And then as the glow slowly +faded in the north there floated down across the aperture of the window +something soft and fluffy like feathers. Thicker and faster it came +until the lawn of the White House was covered with it. The air in the +room turned cold. Through the window a large flake circled and lit on +the back of Rostoloff's head. + +"Snow!" he cried. "A snowstorm--in August!" + +The President arose and closed the window. Almost immediately the +electric lights burned up again. + +"Now are you satisfied?" cried Liban to the German. + +"Satisfied?" growled Von Koenitz. "I have seen plenty of snowstorms in +August. They have them daily in the Alps. You ask me if I am satisfied. +Of what? That earthquakes, the aurora borealis, electrical disturbances, +snowstorms exist--yes. That a mysterious bugaboo is responsible for +these things--no!" + +"What, then, do you require?" gasped Liban. + +"More than a snowstorm!" retorted the German. "When I was a boy at the +gymnasium we had a thunderstorm with fishes in it. They were everywhere +one stepped, all over the ground. But we did not conclude that Jonah was +giving us a demonstration of his power over the whale." + +He faced the others defiantly; in his voice was mockery. + +"You may retire, Mr. Hood," said the President. "But you will kindly +wait outside." + +"That is an honest man if ever I saw one, Mr. President," announced Sir +John, after the operator had gone out. "I am satisfied that we are in +communication with a human being of practically supernatural powers." + +"What, then, shall be done?" inquired Rostoloff anxiously. "The world +will be annihilated!" + +"Your Excellencies"--Von Koenitz arose and took up a graceful position +at the end of the table--"I must protest against what seems to me to be +an extraordinary credulity upon the part of all of you. I speak to you +as a rational human being, not as an ambassador. Something has occurred +to affect the earth's orbit. It may result in a calamity. None can +foretell. This planet may be drawn off into space by the attraction of +some wandering world that has not yet come within observation. But one +thing we know: No power on or of the earth can possibly derange its +relation to the other celestial bodies. That would be, as you say here, +'lifting one's self by one's own boot-straps.' I do not doubt the +accuracy of your clocks and scientific instruments. Those of my own +country are in harmony with yours. But to say that the cause of all this +is a _man_ is preposterous. If the mysterious Pax makes the heavens +fall, they will tumble on his own head. Is he going to send himself to +eternity along with the rest of us? Hardly! This Hood is a monstrous +liar or a dangerous lunatic. Even if he has received these messages, +they are the emanations of a crank, as, he says, he himself first +suspected. Let us master this hysteria born of the strain of constant +war. In a word, let us go to bed." + +"Count von Koenitz," replied Sir John after a pause, "you speak +forcefully, even persuasively. But your argument is based upon a +proposition that is scientifically fallacious. An atom of gunpowder can +disintegrate itself, 'lift itself by its own boot-straps!' Why not the +earth? Have we as yet begun to solve all the mysteries of nature? Is it +inconceivable that there should be an undiscovered explosive capable of +disrupting the globe? We have earthquakes. Is it beyond imagination that +the forces which produce them can be controlled?" + +"My dear Sir John," returned Von Koenitz courteously, "my ultimate +answer is that we have no adequate reason to connect the phenomena which +have disturbed the earth's rotation with any human agency." + +"That," interposed the President, "is something upon which individuals +may well differ. I suppose that under other conditions you would be open +to conviction?" + +"Assuredly," answered Von Koenitz. "Should the sender of these messages +prophesy the performance of some miracle that could not be explained by +natural causes, I would be forced to admit my error." + +Monsieur Liban had also arisen and was walking nervously up and down the +room. Suddenly he turned to Von Koenitz and in a voice shaking with +emotion cried: "Let us then invite Pax to give us a sign that will +satisfy you." + +"Monsieur Liban," replied Von Koenitz stiffly, "I refuse to place myself +in the position of communicating with a lunatic." + +"Very well," shouted the Frenchman, "I will take the responsibility of +making myself ridiculous. I will request the President of the United +States to act as the agent of France for this purpose." + +He drew a notebook and a fountain pen from his pocket and carefully +wrote out a message which he handed to the President. The latter read it +aloud: + + "_Pax_: The Ambassador of the French Republic requests me to + communicate to you the fact that he desires some further evidence + of your power to control the movements of the earth and the + destinies of mankind, such phenomena to be preferably of a harmless + character, but inexplicable by any theory of natural causation. I + await your reply. + + "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES." + +"Send for Hood," ordered the President to the secretary who answered the +bell. "Gentlemen, I suggest that we ourselves go to Georgetown and +superintend the sending of this message." + +Half an hour later Bill Hood sat in his customary chair in the wireless +operating room surrounded by the President of the United States, the +ambassadors of France, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia, and Professor +Thornton. The faces of all wore expressions of the utmost seriousness, +except that of Von Koenitz, who looked as if he were participating in an +elaborate hoax. Several of these distinguished gentlemen had never seen +a wireless apparatus before, and showed some excitement as Hood made +ready to send the most famous message ever transmitted through the +ether. At last he threw over his rheostat and the hum of the rotary +spark rose into its staccato song. Hood sent out a few V's and then +began calling: + +"PAX--PAX--PAX." + +Breathlessly the group waited while he listened for a reply. Again he +called: + +"PAX--PAX--PAX." + +He had already thrown in his Henderson ballast coils and was ready for +the now familiar wave. He closed his eyes, waiting for that sharp +metallic cry that came no one knew whence. The others in the group also +listened intently, as if by so doing they, too, might hear the answer if +any there should be. Suddenly Hood stiffened. + +"There he is!" he whispered. The President handed him the message, and +Hood's fingers played over the key while the spark sent its singing note +through the ether. + +"Such phenomena to be preferably of a harmless character, but +inexplicable by any theory of natural causation," he concluded. + +An uncanny dread seized on Thornton, who had withdrawn himself into the +background. What was this strange communion? Who was this mysterious +Pax? Were these real men or creatures of a grotesque dream? Was he not +drowsing over his eyepiece in the meridian-circle room? Then a +simultaneous movement upon the part of those gathered round the operator +convinced him of the reality of what was taking place. Hood was +laboriously writing upon a sheet of yellow pad paper, and the +ambassadors were unceremoniously crowding each other in their eagerness +to read. + +"To the President of the United States," wrote Hood: "In reply to your +message requesting further evidence of my power to compel the cessation +of hostilities within twenty-four hours, I"--there was a pause for +nearly a minute, during which the ticking of the big clock sounded to +Thornton like revolver shots--"I will excavate a channel through the +Atlas Mountains and divert the Mediterranean into the Sahara Desert. +PAX." + +Silence followed the final transcription of the message from the +unknown--a silence broken only by Bill Hood's tremulous, half-whispered: +"He'll do it all right!" + +Then the German Ambassador laughed. + +"And thus save your ingenious nation a vast amount of trouble, Monsieur +Liban," said he. + + + + +VI + + +A Tripolitan fisherman, Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad, a holy man nearly +seventy years of age, who had twice made the journey to Mecca and who +now in his declining years occupied himself with reading the Koran and +instructing his grandsons in the profession of fishing for mullet along +the reefs of the Gulf of Cabes, had anchored for the night off the +Tunisian coast, about midway between Sfax and Lesser Syrtis. The mullet +had been running thick and he was well satisfied, for by the next +evening he would surely complete his load and be able to return home to +the house of his daughter, Fatima, the wife of Abbas, the confectioner. +Her youngest son, Abdullah, a lithe lad of seventeen, was at that moment +engaged in folding their prayer rugs, which had been spread in the bow +of the falukah in order that they might have a clearer view as they +knelt toward the Holy City. Chud, their slave, was cleaning mullet in +the waist and chanting some weird song of his native land. + +Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad was sitting cross-legged in the stern, smoking a +hookah and watching the full moon sail slowly up above the Atlas Range +to the southwest. The wind had died down and the sea was calm, heaving +slowly with great orange-purple swells resembling watered silk. In the +west still lingered the fast-fading afterglow, above which the stars +glimmered faintly. Along the coast lights twinkled in scattered coves. +Half a mile astern the Italian cruiser _Fiala_ lay slowly swinging at +anchor. From the forecastle came the smell of fried mullet. Mohammed Ben +Ali was at peace with himself and with the world, including even the +irritating Chud. The west darkened and the stars burned more +brilliantly. With the hookah gurgling softly at his feet, Mohammed +leaned back his head and gazed in silent appreciation at the wonders of +the heavens. There was Turka Kabar, the crocodile; and Menish el Tabir, +the sleeping beauty; and Rook Hamana, the leopard, and there--up there +to the far north--was a shooting star. How gracefully it shot across the +sky, leaving its wake of yellow light behind it! It was the season for +shooting stars, he recollected. In an instant it would be gone--like a +man's life! Saddened, he looked down at his hookah. When he should look +up again--if in only an instant--the star would be gone. Presently he +did look up again. But the star was still there, coming his way! + +He rubbed his old eyes, keen as they were from habituation to the +blinding light of the desert. Yes, the star was coming--coming fast. + +"Abdullah!" he called in his high-pitched voice. "Chud! Come, see the +star!" + +Together they watched it sweep onward. + +"By Allah! That is no star!" suddenly cried Abdullah. "It is an +air-flying fire chariot! I can see it with my eyes--black, and spouting +flames from behind." + +"Black," echoed Chud gutturally. "Black and round! Oh, Allah!" He fell +on his knees and knocked his head against the deck. + +The star, or whatever it was, swung in a wide circle toward the coast, +and Mohammed and Abdullah now saw that what they had taken to be a trail +of fire behind was in fact a broad beam of yellow light that pointed +diagonally earthward. It swept nearer and nearer, illuminating the whole +sky and casting a shimmering reflection upon the waves. + +A shrill whistle trilled across the water, accompanied by the sound of +footsteps running along the decks of the cruiser. Lights flashed. +Muffled orders were shouted. + +"By the beard of the Prophet!" cried Mohammed Ali. "Something is going +to happen!" + +The small black object from which the incandescent beam descended passed +at that moment athwart the face of the moon, and Abdullah saw that it +was round and flat like a ring. The ray of light came from a point +directly above it, passing through its aperture downward to the sea. + +"Boom!" The fishing-boat shook to the thunder of the _Fiala's_ +eight-inch gun, and a blinding spurt of flame leaped from the cruiser's +bows. With a whining shriek a shell rose toward the moon. There was a +quick flash followed by a dull concussion. The shell had not reached a +tenth of the distance to the flying machine. + +And then everything happened at once. Mohammed described afterward to a +gaping multitude of dirty villagers, while he sat enthroned upon his +daughter's threshold, how the star-ship had sailed across the face of +the moon and come to a standstill above the mountains, with its beam of +yellow light pointing directly downward so that the coast could be seen +bright as day from Sfax to Cabes. He saw, he said, genii climbing up and +down on the beam. Be that as it may, he swears upon the Beard of the +Prophet that a second ray of light--of a lavender colour, like the eye +of a long-dead mullet--flashed down alongside the yellow beam. Instantly +the earth blew up like a cannon--up into the air, a thousand miles up. +It was as light as noonday. Deafened by titanic concussions he fell half +dead. The sea boiled and gave off thick clouds of steam through which +flashed dazzling discharges of lightning accompanied by a thundering, +grinding sound like a million mills. The ocean heaved spasmodically and +the air shook with a rending, ripping noise, as if Nature were bent upon +destroying her own handiwork. The glare was so dazzling that sight was +impossible. The falukah was tossed this way and that, as if caught in a +simoon, and he was rolled hither and yon in the company of Chud, +Abdullah, and the headless mullet. + +This earsplitting racket continued, he says, without interruption for +two days. Abdullah says it was several hours; the official report of the +_Fiala_ gives it as six minutes. And then it began to rain in torrents +until he was almost drowned. A great wind arose and lashed the ocean, +and a whirlpool seized the falukah and whirled it round and round. +Darkness descended upon the earth, and in the general mess Mohammed hit +his head a terrific blow against the mast. He was sure it was but a +matter of seconds before they would be dashed to pieces by the waves. +The falukah spun like a marine top with a swift sideways motion. +Something was dragging them along, sucking them in. The _Fiala_ went +careening by, her fighting masts hanging in shreds. The air was full of +falling rocks, trees, splinters, and thick clouds of dust that turned +the water yellow in the lightning flashes. The mast went crashing over +and a lemon tree descended to take its place. Great streams of lava +poured down out of the air, and masses of opaque matter plunged into the +sea all about the falukah. Scalding mud, stones, hail, fell upon the +deck. + +And still the fishing-boat, gyrating like a leaf, remained afloat with +its crew of half-crazed Arabs. Suffocated, stunned, scalded, petrified +with fear, they lay among the mullet while the falukah raced along in +its wild dance with death. Mohammed recalls seeing what he thought to be +a great cliff rush by close beside them. The falukah plunged over a +waterfall and was almost submerged, was caught again in a maelstrom, and +went twirling on in the blackness. They all were deathly sick, but were +too terrified to move. + +And then the nearer roaring ceased. The air was less congested. They +were still showered with sand, clods of earth, twigs, and pebbles, it is +true, but the genii had stopped hurling mountains at each other. The +darkness became less opaque, the water smoother. Soon they could see the +moon through the clouds of settling dust, and gradually they could +discern the stars. The falukah was rocking gently upon a broad expanse +of muddy ocean, surrounded by a yellow scum broken here and there by a +floating tree. The _Fiala_ had vanished. No light shone upon the face of +the waters. But death had not overtaken them. Overcome by exhaustion and +terror Mohammed lay among the mullet, his legs entangled in the lemon +tree. Did he dream it? He cannot tell. But as he lost consciousness he +thinks he saw a star shooting toward the north. + +When he awoke the falukah lay motionless upon a boundless ochre sea. +They were beyond sight of land. Out of a sky slightly dim the sun burned +pitilessly down, sending warmth into their bodies and courage to their +hearts. All about them upon the water floated the evidences of the +cataclysm of the preceding night--trees, shrubs, dead birds, and the +distorted corpse of a camel. Kneeling without their prayer rugs among +the mullet they raised their voices in praise of Allah and his Prophet. + + + + +VII + + +Within twenty-four hours of the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas by +the Flying Ring and the consequent flooding of the Sahara, the official +gazettes and such newspapers as were still published announced that the +Powers had agreed upon an armistice and accepted a proposition of +mediation on the part of the United States looking toward permanent +peace. The news of the devastation and flood caused by this strange and +terrible dreadnought of the air created the profoundest apprehension and +caused the wildest rumours, for what had happened in Tunis was assumed +as likely to occur in London, Paris, or New York. Wireless messages +flashed the story from Algiers to Cartagena, and it was thence +disseminated throughout the civilized world by the wireless stations at +Paris, Nauen, Moscow, and Georgetown. + +The fact that the rotation of the earth had been retarded was still a +secret, and the appearance of the Ring had not as yet been connected +with any of the extraordinary phenomena surrounding it; but the +newspaper editorials universally agreed that whatever nation owned and +controlled this new instrument of war could dictate its own terms. It +was generally supposed that the blasting of the mountain chain of +Northern Africa had been an experiment to test and demonstrate the +powers of this new demoniacal invention, and in view of its success it +did not seem surprising that the nations had hastened to agree to an +armistice, for the Power that controlled a force capable of producing +such an extraordinary physical cataclysm could annihilate every capital, +every army, every people upon the globe or even the globe itself. + +The flight of the Ring machine had been observed at several different +points, beginning at Cape Race, where at about four A.M. the +wireless operator reported what he supposed to be a large comet +discharging earthward a diagonal shaft of orange-yellow light and moving +at incredible velocity in a southeasterly direction. During the +following day the lookout on the _Vira_, a fishguard and scout cruiser +of the North Atlantic Patrol, saw a black speck soaring among the clouds +which he took to be a lost monoplane fighting to regain the coast of +Ireland. At sundown an amateur wireless operator at St. Michael's in the +Azores noted a small comet sweeping across the sky far to the north. +This comet an hour or so later passed directly over the cities of +Lisbon, Linares, Lorca, Cartagena, and Algiers, and was clearly +observable from Badajoz, Almadén, Seville, Cordova, Grenada, Oran, +Biskra, and Tunis, and at the latter places it was easily possible for +telescopic observers to determine its size, shape, and general +construction. + +Daniel W. Quinn, Jr., the acting United States Consul stationed at +Biskra, who happened to be dining with the abbot of the Franciscan +monastery at Linares, sent the following account of the flight of the +Ring to the State Department at Washington, where it is now on file. +[See Vol. 27, pp. 491-498, with footnote, of Official Records of the +Consular Correspondence for 1915-1916.] After describing general +conditions in Algeria he continues: + + We had gone upon the roof in the early evening to look at the sky + through the large telescope presented to the Franciscans by Count + Philippe d'Ormay, when Father Antoine called my attention to a + comet that was apparently coming straight toward us. Instead, + however, of leaving a horizontal trail of fire behind it, this + comet or meteorite seemed to shoot an almost vertical beam of + orange light toward the earth. It produced a very strange effect on + all of us, since a normal comet or other celestial body that left a + wake of light of that sort behind it would naturally be expected to + be moving upward toward the zenith, instead of in a direction + parallel to the earth. It looked somehow as if the tail of the + comet had been bent over. As soon as it came near enough so that we + could focus the telescope upon it we discovered that it was a new + sort of flying machine. It passed over our heads at a height no + greater than ten thousand feet, if as great as that, and we could + see that it was a cylindrical ring like a doughnut or an anchor + ring, constructed, I believe, of highly polished metal, the inner + aperture being about twenty-five yards in diameter. The tube of the + cylinder looked to be about twenty feet thick, and had circular + windows or portholes that were brilliantly lighted. + + The strangest thing about it was that it carried a superstructure + consisting of a number of arms meeting at a point above the centre + of the opening and supporting some sort of apparatus from which the + beam of light emanated. This appliance, which we supposed to be a + gigantic searchlight, was focused down through the Ring and could + apparently be moved at will over a limited radius of about fifteen + degrees. We could not understand this, nor why the light was thrown + from outside and above instead of from inside the flying machine, + but the explanation may be found in the immense heat that must have + been required to generate the light, since it illuminated the entire + country for fifty miles or so, and we were able to read without + trouble the fine print of the abbot's rubric. This Flying Ring moved + on an even keel at the tremendous velocity of about two hundred + miles an hour. We wondered what would happen if it turned turtle, + for in that case the weight of the superstructure would have + rendered it impossible for the machine to right itself. In fact, + none of us had ever imagined any such air monster before. Beside it + a Zeppelin seemed like a wooden toy. + + The Ring passed over the mountains toward Cabes and within a short + time a volcanic eruption occurred that destroyed a section of the + Atlas Range. [Mr. Quinn here describes with considerable detail the + destruction of the mountains.] The next morning I found Biskra + crowded with Arabs, who reported that the ocean had poured through + the passage made by the eruption and was flooding the entire desert + as far south as the oasis of Wargla, and that it had come within + twelve miles of the walls of our own city. I at once hired a donkey + and made a personal investigation, with the result that I can report + as a fact that the entire desert east and south of Biskra is + inundated to a depth of from seven to ten feet and that the water + gives no sign of going down. The loss of life seems to have been + negligible, owing to the fact that the height of the water is not + great and that many unexpected islands have provided safety for the + caravans that were _in transitu_. These are now marooned and waiting + for assistance, which I am informed will be sent from Cabes in the + form of flat-bottomed boats fitted with motor auxiliaries. + + Respectfully submitted, + + D. W. QUINN, Jr., + Acting U. S. Consul. + +The Italian cruiser _Fiala_, which had been carried one hundred and +eighty miles into the desert on the night of the eruption, grounded +safely on the plateau of Tasili, but the volcanic tidal wave on which +she had been swept along, having done its work, receded, leaving too +little water for the _Fiala's_ draft of thirty-seven feet. Four launches +sent out in different directions to the south and east reported no sign +of land, but immense quantities of floating vegetable matter, yellow +dust, and the bodies of jackals, camels, zebras, and lions. The fifth +launch after great hardships reached the seacoast through the new +channel and arrived at Sfax after eight days. + +The mean tide level of the Mediterranean sank fifteen inches, and the +water showed marked discoloration for several months, while a volcanic +haze hung over Northern Africa, Sicily, Malta, and Sardinia for an even +longer period. + +Though many persons must have lost their lives the records are +incomplete in this respect; but there is a curious document in the +mosque at Sfax touching the effect of the Lavender Ray. It appears that +an Arab mussel-gatherer was in a small boat with his two brothers at the +time the Ring appeared above the mountains. As they looked up toward the +sky the Ray flashed over and illuminated their faces. They thought +nothing of it at the time, for almost immediately the mountains were +rent asunder and in the titanic upheaval that followed they were all +cast upon the shore, as they thought, dead men. Reaching Sfax they +reported their adventures and offered prayers in gratitude for their +extraordinary escape; but five days later all three began to suffer +excruciating torment from internal burns, the skin upon their heads and +bodies began to peel off, and they died in agony within the week. + + + + +VIII + + +It was but a few days thereafter that the President of the United States +received the official note from Count von Koenitz, on behalf of the +Imperial German Commissioners, to the effect that Germany would join +with the other Powers in an armistice looking toward peace and +ultimately a universal disarmament. Similar notes had already been +received by the President from France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, +Austria, Spain, and Slavia, and a multitude of the other smaller Powers +who were engaged in the war, and there was no longer any reason for +delaying the calling of an international council or diet for the purpose +of bringing about what Pax demanded as a ransom for the safety of the +globe. + +In the files of the State Department at Washington there is secreted the +only record of the diplomatic correspondence touching these momentous +events, and a transcript of the messages exchanged between the President +of the United States and the Arbiter of Human Destiny. They are +comparatively few in number, for Pax seemed to be satisfied to leave all +details to the Powers themselves. In the interest of saving time, +however, he made the simple suggestion that the present ambassadors +should be given plenary powers to determine the terms and conditions +upon which universal peace should be declared. All these proceedings and +the reasons therefore were kept profoundly secret. It began to look as +though the matter would be put through with characteristic Yankee +promptness. Pax's suggestion was acceded to, and the ambassadors and +ministers were given unrestricted latitude in drawing the treaty that +should abolish war forever. + +Now that he had been won over no one was more indefatigable than Von +Koenitz, none more fertile in suggestions. It was he who drafted with +his own hand the forty pages devoted to the creation of the commission +charged with the duty of destroying all arms, munitions, and implements +of war; and he not only acted as chairman of the preliminary drafting +committee, but was an active member of at least half a dozen other +important subcommittees. The President daily communicated the progress +of this conference of the Powers to Pax through Bill Hood, and received +daily in return a hearty if laconic approval. + + "I am satisfied of the sincerity of the Powers and with the + progress made. PAX." + +was the ordinary type of message received. Meantime word had been sent +to all the governments that an indefinite armistice had been declared, +to commence at the end of ten days, for it had been found necessary to +allow for the time required to transmit the orders to the various fields +of military operations throughout Europe. In the interim the war +continued. + +It was at this time that Count von Koenitz, who now was looked upon as +the leading figure of the conference, arose and said: "Your +Excellencies, this distinguished diet will, I doubt not, presently +conclude its labours and receive not only the approval of the Powers +represented but the gratitude of the nations of the world. I voice the +sentiments of the Imperial Commissioners when I say that no Power looks +forward with greater eagerness than Germany to the accomplishment of our +purpose. But we should not forget that there is one menace to mankind +greater than that of war--namely, the lurking danger from the power of +this unknown possessor of superhuman knowledge of explosives. So far his +influence has been a benign one, but who can say when it may become +malignant? Will our labours please him? Perhaps not. Shall we agree? I +hope so, but who can tell? Will our armies lay down their arms even +after we have agreed? I believe all will go well; but is it wise for us +to refrain from jointly taking steps to ascertain the identity of this +unknown juggler with Nature, and the source of his power? It is my own +opinion, since we cannot exert any influence or control upon this +individual, that we should take whatever steps are within our grasp to +safeguard ourselves in the event that he refuses to keep faith with us. +To this end I suggest an international conference of scientific men from +all the nations to be held here in Washington coincidently with our own +meetings, with a view to determining these questions." + +His remarks were greeted with approval by almost all the representatives +present except Sir John Smith, who mildly hinted that such a course +might be regarded as savouring a trifle of double dealing. Should Pax +receive knowledge of the suggested conference he might question their +sincerity and view all their doings with suspicion. In a word, Sir John +believed in following a consistent course and treating Pax as a friend +and ally and not as a possible enemy. + +Sir John's speech, however, left the delegates unconvinced and with the +feeling that his argument was over-refined. They felt that there could +be no objection to endeavouring to ascertain the source of Pax's +power--the law of self-preservation seemed to indicate such a course as +necessary. And it had, in fact, already been discussed vaguely by +several less conspicuous delegates. Accordingly it was voted, with but +two dissenting voices,[2] to summon what was known as Conference No. 2, +to be held as soon as possible, its proceedings to be conducted in +secret under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, with the +president of the Academy acting as permanent chairman. To this +conference the President appointed Thornton as one of the three +delegates from the United States. + +[Footnote 2: The President of the United States also voted in the +negative.] + +The council of the Powers having so voted, Count von Koenitz at once +transmitted, by way of Sayville, a message which in code appeared to be +addressed to a Herr Karl Heinweg, Notary, at 12^{BIS} Bunden Strasse, +Strassburg, and related to a mortgage about to fall due upon some of Von +Koenitz's properties in Thüringen. When decoded it read: + + "_To the Imperial Commissioners of the German Federated States:_ + + "I have the honour to report that acting according to your + distinguished instructions I have this day proposed an international + conference to consider the scientific problems presented by certain + recent phenomena and that my proposition was adopted. I believe that + in this way the proceedings here may be delayed indefinitely and + time thus secured to enable an expedition to be organized and + dispatched for the purpose of destroying this unknown person or + ascertaining the secret of his power, in accordance with my previous + suggestion. It would be well to send as delegates to this Conference + No. 2 several professors of physics who can by plausible arguments + and ingenious theories so confuse the matter that no determination + can be reached. I suggest Professors Gasgabelaus, of München, and + Leybach, of the Hague. + + "VON KOENITZ." + +And having thus fulfilled his duty the count took a cab to the +Metropolitan Club and there played a discreet game of billiards with +Señor Tomasso Varilla, the ex-minister from Argentina. + +Von Koenitz from the first had played his hand with a skill which from a +diplomatic view left nothing to be desired. The extraordinary natural +phenomena which had occurred coincidentally with the first message of +Pax to the President of the United States and the fall of Cleopatra's +Needle had been immediately observed by the scientists attached to the +Imperial and other universities throughout the German Federated States, +and had no sooner been observed than their significance had been +realized. These most industrious and thorough of all human investigators +had instantly reported the facts and their preliminary conclusions to +the Imperial Commissioners, with the recommendation that no stone be +left unturned in attempting to locate and ascertain the causes of this +disruption of the forces of nature. The Commissioners at once demanded +an exhaustive report from the faculty of the Imperial German University, +and notified Von Koenitz by cable that until further notice he must seek +in every way to delay investigation by other nations and to belittle the +importance of what had occurred, for these astute German scientists had +at once jumped to the conclusion that the acceleration of the earth's +motion had been due to some human agency possessed of a hitherto +unsuspected power. + +It was for this reason that at the first meeting at the White House the +Ambassador had pooh-poohed the whole matter and talked of snowstorms in +the Alps and showers of fish at Heidelburg, but with the rending of the +northern coast of Africa and the well-attested appearances of "The Ring" +he soon reached the conclusion that his wisest course was to cause such +a delay on the part of the other Powers that the inevitable race for the +secret would be won by the nation which he so astutely represented. He +reasoned, quite accurately, that the scientists of England, Russia, and +America would not remain idle in attempting to deduce the cause and +place the origin of the phenomena and the habitat of the master of the +Ring, and that the only effectual means to enable Germany to capture +this, the greatest of all prizes of war, was to befuddle the +representatives of the other nations while leaving his own unhampered in +their efforts to accomplish that which would make his countrymen, almost +without further effort, the masters of the world. Now the easiest way to +befuddle the scientists of the world was to get them into one place and +befuddle them all together, and this, after communicating with his +superiors, he had proceeded to do. He was a clever man, trained in the +devious ways of the Wilhelmstrasse, and when he set out to accomplish +something he was almost inevitably successful. Yet in spite of the +supposed alliance between Kaiser and Deity man proposes and God +disposes, and sometimes the latter uses the humblest of human +instruments in that disposition. + + + + +IX + + +The Imperial German Commissioner for War, General Hans von Helmuth, was +a man of extraordinary decision and farsightedness. Sixty years of age, +he had been a member of the general staff since he was forty. He had sat +at the feet of Bismarck and Von Moltke, and during his active +participation in the management of German military affairs he had seen +but slight changes in their policy: Mass--overwhelming mass; sudden +momentous onslaught, and, above all, an attack so quick that your +adversary could not regain his feet. It worked nine times out of ten, +and when it didn't it was usually better than taking the defensive. +General von Helmuth having an approved system was to that extent +relieved of anxiety, for all he had to do was to work out details. In +this his highly efficient organization was almost automatic. He himself +was a human compendium of knowledge, and he had but to press a button +and emit a few gutturals and any information that he wanted lay +typewritten before him. Now he sat in his office smoking a Bremen cigar +and studying a huge Mercatorial projection of the Atlantic and adjacent +countries, while with the fingers of his left hand he combed his heavy +beard. + +From the window he looked down upon the inner fortifications of +Mainz--to which city the capital had been removed three months +before--and upon the landing stage for the scouting planes which were +constantly arriving or whirring off toward Holland or Strassburg. Across +the river, under the concealed guns of a sunken battery, stood the huge +hangars of the now useless dirigibles Z^{51~57}. The landing stage +communicated directly by telephone with the adjutant's office, an +enormous hall filled with maps, with which Von Helmuth's private room +was connected. The adjutant himself, a worried-looking man with a bullet +head and an iron-gray moustache, stood at a table in the centre of the +hall addressing rapid-fire sentences to various persons who appeared in +the doorway, saluted, and hurried off again. Several groups were +gathered about the table and the adjutant carried on an interrupted +conversation with all of them, pausing to read the telegrams and +messages that shot out of the pneumatic tubes upon the table from the +telegraph and telephone office on the floor below. + +An elderly man in rather shabby clothes entered, looking about +helplessly through the thick lenses of his double spectacles, and the +adjutant turned at once from the officers about him with an "Excuse me, +gentlemen." + +"Good afternoon, Professor von Schwenitz; the general is waiting for +you," said he. "This way, please." + +He stalked across to the door of the inner office. + +"Professor von Schwenitz is here," he announced, and immediately +returned to take up the thread of his conversation in the centre of the +hall. + +The general turned gruffly to greet his visitor. "I have sent for you, +Professor," said he, without removing his cigar, "in order that I may +fully understand the method by which you say you have ascertained the +place of origin of the wireless messages and electrical disturbances +referred to in our communications of last week. This may be a serious +matter. The accuracy of your information is of vital importance." + +The professor hesitated in embarrassment, and the general scowled. + +"Well?" he demanded, biting off the chewed end of his cigar. "Well? This +is not a lecture room. Time is short. Out with it." + +"Your Excellency!" stammered the poor professor, "I--I----The +observations are so--inadequate--one cannot determine----" + +"What?" roared Von Helmuth. "But you said you _had_!" + +"Only approximately, your Excellency. One cannot be positive, but within +a reasonable distance----" He paused. + +"What do you call a reasonable distance? I supposed your physics was an +exact science!" retorted the general. + +"But the data----" + +"What do you call a reasonable distance?" bellowed the Imperial +Commissioner. + +"A hundred kilometres!" suddenly shouted the overwrought professor, +losing control of himself. "I won't be talked to this way, do you hear? +I won't! How can a man think? I'm a member of the faculty of the +Imperial University. I've been decorated twice--twice!" + +"Fiddlesticks!" returned the general, amused in spite of himself. "Don't +be absurd. I merely wish you to hurry. Have a cigar?" + +"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, now both ashamed and +frightened. "You must excuse me. The war has shattered my nerves. May I +smoke? Thank you." + +"Sit down. Take your time," said Von Helmuth, looking out and up at a +monoplane descending toward the landing in slowly lessening spirals. + +"You see, your Excellency," explained Von Schwenitz, "the data are +fragmentary, but I used three methods, each checking the others." + +"The first?" shot back the general. The monoplane had landed safely. + +"I compared the records of all the seismographs that had registered the +earthquake wave attendant on the electrical discharges accompanying the +great yellow auroras of July. These shocks had been felt all over the +globe, and I secured reports from Java, New Guinea, Lima, Tucson, +Greenwich, Algeria, and Moscow. These showed the wave had originated +somewhere in Eastern Labrador." + +"Yes, yes. Go on!" ordered the general. + +"In the second place, the violent magnetic storms produced by the helium +aurora appear to have left their mark each time upon the earth in a +permanent, if slight, deflection of the compass needle. The earth's +normal magnetic field seems to have had superimposed upon it a new field +comprised of lines of force nearly parallel to the equator. My +computations show that these great circles of magnetism centre at +approximately the same point in Labrador as that indicated by the +seismographs--about fifty-five degrees north and seventy-five degrees +west." + +The general seemed struck with this. + +"Permanent deflection, you say!" he ejaculated. + +"Yes, apparently permanent. Finally the barometer records told the same +story, although in less precise form. A compressional wave of air had +been started in the far north and had spread out over the earth with the +velocity of sound. Though the barographs themselves gave no indication +whence this wave had come, the variation in its intensity at different +meteorological observatories could be accounted for by the law of +inverse squares on the supposition that the explosion which started the +wave had occurred at fifty-five degrees north, seventy-five degrees +west." + +The professor paused and wiped his glasses. With a roar a Taube slid off +the landing stage, shot over toward the hangars, and soared upward. + +"Is that all?" inquired the general, turning again to the chart. + +"That is all, your Excellency," answered Von Schwenitz. + +"Then you may go!" muttered the Imperial Commissioner. "If we find the +source of these disturbances where you predict you will receive the +Black Eagle." + +"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, his face shining with +satisfaction. + +"And if we do _not_ find it--there will be a vacancy on the faculty of +the Imperial University!" he added grimly. "Good afternoon." + +He pressed a button and the departing scholar was met by an orderly and +escorted from the War Bureau, while the adjutant joined Von Helmuth. + +"He's got him! I'm satisfied!" remarked the Commissioner. "Now outline +your plan." + +The bullet-headed man took up the calipers and indicated a spot on the +coast of Labrador: + +"Our expedition will land, subject to your approval, at Hamilton Inlet, +using the town of Rigolet as a base. By availing ourselves of the +Nascopee River and the lakes through which it flows, we can easily +penetrate to the highland where the inventor of the Ring machine has +located himself. The auxiliary brigantine _Sea Fox_ is lying now under +American colours at Amsterdam, and as she can steam fifteen knots an +hour she should reach the Inlet in about ten days, passing to the north +of the Orkneys." + +"What force have you in mind?" inquired Von Helmuth, his cold gray eyes +narrowing. + +"Three full companies of sappers and miners, ten mountain howitzers, a +field battery, fifty rapid-fire standing rifles, and a complete outfit +for throwing lyddite. Of course we shall rely principally on high +explosives if it becomes necessary to use force, but what we want is a +hostage who may later become an ally." + +"Yes, of course," said the general with a laugh. "This is a scientific, +not a military, expedition." + +"I have asked Lieutenant Münster to report upon the necessary +equipment." + +Von Helmuth nodded, and the adjutant stepped to the door and called out: +"Lieutenant Münster!" + +A trim young man in naval uniform appeared upon the threshold and +saluted. + +"State what you regard as necessary as equipment for the proposed +expedition," said the general. + +"Twenty motor boats, each capable of towing several flat-bottomed barges +or native canoes, forty mules, a field telegraph, and also a +high-powered wireless apparatus, axes, spades, wire cables and drums, +windlasses, dynamite for blasting, and provisions for sixty days. We +shall live off the country and secure artisans and bearers from among +the natives." + +"When will it be possible to start?" inquired the general. + +"In twelve days if you give the order now," answered the young man. + +"Very well, you may go. And good luck to you!" he added. + +The young lieutenant saluted and turned abruptly on his heel. + +Over the parade ground a biplane was hovering, darting this way and +that, rising and falling with startling velocity. + +"Who's that?" inquired the general approvingly. + +"Schöningen," answered the adjutant. + +The Imperial Commissioner felt in his breast-pocket for another cigar. + +"Do you know, Ludwig," he remarked amiably as he struck a meditative +match, "sometimes I more than half believe this 'Flying Ring' business +is all rot!" + +The adjutant looked pained. + +"And yet," continued Von Helmuth, "if Bismarck could see one of those +things," he waved his cigar toward the gyrating aeroplane, "he wouldn't +believe it." + + + + +X + + +All day the International Assembly of Scientists, officially known as +Conference No. 2, had been sitting, but not progressing, in the large +lecture hall of the Smithsonian Institution, which probably had never +before seen so motley a gathering. Each nation had sent three +representatives, two professional scientists, and a lay delegate, the +latter some writer or thinker renowned in his own country for his wide +knowledge and powers of ratiocination. They had come together upon the +appointed day, although the delegates from the remoter countries had not +yet arrived, and the Committee on Credentials had already reported. +Germany had sent Gasgabelaus, Leybach, and Wilhelm Lamszus; +France--Sortell, Amand, and Buona Varilla; Great Britain--Sir William +Crookes, Sir Francis Soddy, and Mr. H. G. Wells, celebrated for his "The +War of the Worlds" and The "World Set Free," and hence supposedly just +the man to unravel a scientific mystery such as that which confronted +this galaxy of immortals. + +The Committee on Data, of which Thornton was a member, having been +actively at work for nearly two weeks through wireless communication +with all the observatories--seismic, meteorological, astronomical, and +otherwise--throughout the world, had reduced its findings to print, and +this matter, translated into French, German, and Italian, had already +been distributed among those present. Included in its pages was Quinn's +letter to the State Department. + +The roll having been called, the president of the National Academy of +Sciences made a short speech in which he outlined briefly the purpose +for which the committee had been summoned and commented to some extent +upon the character of the phenomena it was required to analyze. + +And then began an unending series of discussions and explanations in +French, German, Dutch, Russian, and Italian, by goggle-eyed, +bushy-whiskered, long-haired men who looked like anarchists or +sociologists and apparently had never before had an unrestricted +opportunity to air their views on anything. + +Thornton, listening to this hodgepodge of technicalities, was dismayed +and distrustful. These men spoke a language evidently familiar to them, +which he, although a professional scientist, found a meaningless jargon. +The whole thing seemed unreal, had a purely theoretic or literary +quality about it that made him question even their premises. In the +tainted air of the council room, listening to these little pot-bellied +_Professoren_ from Amsterdam and Münich, doubt assailed him, doubt even +that the earth had changed its orbit, doubt even of his own established +formulæ and tables. Weren't they all just talking through their hats? +Wasn't it merely a game in which an elaborate system of equivalents gave +a semblance of actuality to what in fact was nothing but mind-play? Even +Wells, whose literary style he admired as one of the beauties as well as +one of the wonders of the world, had been a disappointment. He had +seemed singularly halting and unconvincing. + +"I wish I knew a practical man--I wish Bennie Hooker were here!" +muttered Thornton to himself. He had not seen his classmate Hooker for +twenty-six years; but that was one thing about Hooker: you knew he'd be +exactly the same--only more so--as he was when you last saw him. In +those years Bennie had become the Lawson Professor of Applied Physics at +Harvard. Thornton had read his papers on induced radiation, thermic +equilibrium, and had one of Bennie's famous Gem Home Cookers in his own +little bachelor apartment. Hooker would know. And if he didn't he'd tell +you so, without befogging the atmosphere with a lot of things he _did_ +know, but that wouldn't help you in the least. Thornton clutched at the +thought of him like a falling aeronaut at a dangling rope. He'd be worth +a thousand of these dreaming lecturers, these beer-drinking visionaries! +But where could he be found? It was August, vacation time. Still, he +might be in Cambridge giving a summer course or something. + +At that moment Professor Gasgabelaus, the temporary chairman, a huge +man, the periphery of whose abdomen rivalled the circumference of the +"working terrestrial globe" at the other end of the platform, pounded +perspiringly with his gavel and announced that the conference would +adjourn until the following Monday morning. It was Friday afternoon, so +he had sixty hours in which to connect with Bennie, if Bennie could be +discovered. A telegram of inquiry brought no response, and he took the +midnight train to Boston, reaching Cambridge about two o'clock the +following afternoon. + +The air trembled with heat. Only by dodging from the shadow of one big +elm to another did he manage to reach the Appian Way--the street given +in the university catalogue as Bennie's habitat--alive. As he swung open +the little wicket gate he realized with an odd feeling that it was the +same house where Hooker had lived when a student, twenty-five years +before. + +"Board" was printed on a yellow, fly-blown card in the corner of the +window beside the door. + +Up there over the porch was the room Bennie had inhabited from '85 to +'89. He recalled vividly the night he, Thornton, had put his foot +through the lower pane. They had filled up the hole with an old golf +stocking. His eyes searched curiously for the pane. There it was, still +broken and still stuffed--it couldn't be!--with some colourless material +strangely resembling disintegrating worsted. The sun smote him in the +back of his neck and drove him to seek the relief of the porch. Had he +ever left Cambridge? Wasn't it a dream about his becoming an astronomer +and working at the Naval Observatory? And all this stuff about the earth +going on the loose? If he opened the door wouldn't he find Bennie with a +towel round his head cramming for the "exams"? For a moment he really +imagined that he was an undergraduate. Then as he fanned himself with +his straw hat he caught, on the silk band across the interior, the +words: "Smith's Famous Headwear, Washington, D.C." No, he was really an +astronomer. + +He shuddered in spite of the heat as he pulled the bell knob. What +ghosts would its jangle summon? The bell, however, gave no sound; in +fact the knob came off in his hand, followed by a foot or so of copper +wire. He laughed, gazing at it blankly. No one had ever used the bell in +the old days. They had simply kicked open the door and halloed: "O-o-h, +Bennie Hooker!" + +Thornton laid the knob on the piazza and inspected the front of the +house. The windows were thick with dust, the "yard" scraggly with weeds. +A piece of string held the latch of the gate together. Then +automatically, and without intending to do so at all, Thornton turned +the handle of the front door, assisting it coincidentally with a gentle +kick from his right toe, and found himself in the narrow cabbage-scented +hallway. The old, familiar, battered black-walnut hatrack of his student +days leaned drunkenly against the wall--Thornton knew one of its back +legs was missing--and on the imitation marble slab was a telegram +addressed to "Professor Benjamin Hooker." And also, instinctively, +Thornton lifted up his adult voice and yelled: + +"O-o-h, ye-ay! Bennie Hooker!" + +The volume of his own sound startled him. Instantly he saw the +ridiculousness of it--he, the senior astronomer at the Naval +Observatory, yelling like that---- + +"O-o-h, ye-ay!" came in smothered tones from above. + +Thornton bounded up the stairs, two, three steps at a time, and pounded +on the old door over the porch. + +"Go away!" came back the voice of Bennie Hooker. "Don't want any lunch!" + +Thornton continued to bang on the door while Professor Hooker wrathfully +besought the intruder to depart before he took active measures. There +was the cracking of glass. + +"Oh, damn!" came from inside. + +Thornton rattled the knob and kicked. Somebody haltingly crossed the +room, the key turned, and Prof. Bennie Hooker opened the door. + +"Well?" he demanded, scowling over his thick spectacles. + +"Hello, Bennie!" said Thornton, holding out his hand. + +"Hello, Buck!" returned Hooker. "Come in. I thought it was that +confounded Ethiopian." + +As far as Thornton could see, it was the same old room, only now crammed +with books and pamphlets and crowded with tables of instruments. Hooker, +clad in sneakers, white ducks, and an undershirt, was smoking a small +"T. D." pipe. + +"Where on earth did you come from?" he inquired good-naturedly. + +"Washington," answered Thornton, and something told him that this was +the real thing--the "goods"--that his journey would be repaid. + +Hooker waved the "T. D." in a general sort of way toward some +broken-down horsehair armchairs and an empty crate. + +"Sit down, won't you?" he said, as if he had seen his guest only the day +before. He looked vaguely about for something that Thornton might smoke, +then seated himself on a cluttered bench holding a number of retorts, +beside which flamed an oxyacetylene blowpipe. He was a wizened little +chap, with scrawny neck and protruding Adam's apple. His long hair gave +no evidence of the use of the comb, and his hands were the hands of +Esau. He had an alertness that suggested a robin, but at the same time +gave the impression that he looked through things rather than at them. +On the mantel was a saucer containing the fast oxidizing cores of +several apples and a half-eaten box of oatmeal biscuits. + +"My Lord! This is an untidy hole! No more order than when you were an +undergrad!" exclaimed Thornton, looking about him in amused horror. + +"Order?" returned Bennie indignantly. "Everything's in perfect order! +This chair is filled with the letters I _have_ already answered; this +chair with the letters I've _not_ answered; and this chair with the +letters I shall _never_ answer!" + +Thornton took a seat on the crate, laughing. It was the same old Bennie! + +"You're an incorrigible!" he sighed despairingly. + +"Well, you're a star gazer, aren't you?" inquired Hooker, relighting his +pipe. "Some one told me so--I forget who. You must have a lot of +interesting problems. They tell me that new planet of yours is full of +uranium." + +Thornton laughed. "You mustn't believe all that you read in the papers. +What are you working at particularly?" + +"Oh, radium and thermic induction mostly," answered Hooker. "And when I +want a rest I take a crack at the fourth dimension--spacial curvature's +my hobby. But I'm always working at radio stuff. That's where the big +things are going to be pulled off, you know." + +"Yes, of course," answered Thornton. He wondered if Hooker ever saw a +paper, how long since he had been out of the house. "By the way, did you +know Berlin had been taken?" he asked. + +"Berlin--in Germany, you mean?" + +"Yes, by the Russians." + +"No! Has it?" inquired Hooker with politeness. "Oh, I think some one did +mention it." + +Thornton fumbled for a cigarette and Bennie handed him a match. They +seemed to have extraordinarily little to say for men who hadn't seen +each other for twenty-six years. + +"I suppose," went on the astronomer, "you think it's deuced funny my +dropping in casually this way after all this time, but the fact is I +came on purpose. I want to get some information from you straight." + +"Go ahead!" said Bennie. "What's it about?" + +"Well, in a word," answered Thornton, "the earth's nearly a quarter of +an hour behind time." + +Hooker received this announcement with a polite interest but no +astonishment. + +"That's a how-de-do!" he remarked. "What's done it?" + +"That's what I want you to tell _me_," said Thornton sternly. "What +_could_ do it?" + +Hooker unlaced his legs and strolled over to the mantel. + +"Have a cracker?" he asked, helping himself. Then he picked up a piece +of wood and began whittling. "I suppose there's the devil to pay?" he +suggested. "Things upset and so on? Atmospheric changes? When did it +happen?" + +"About three weeks ago. Then there's this Sahara business." + +"What Sahara business?" + +"Haven't you heard?" + +"No," answered Hooker rather impatiently. "I haven't heard anything. I +haven't any time to read the papers; I'm too busy. My thermic inductor +transformers melted last week and I'm all in the air. What was it?" + +"Oh, never mind now," said Thornton hurriedly, perceiving that Hooker's +ignorance was an added asset. He'd get his science pure, uncontaminated +by disturbing questions of fact. "How about the earth's losing that +quarter of an hour?" + +"Of course she's off her orbit," remarked Hooker in a detached way. "And +you want to know what's done it? Don't blame you. I suppose you've gone +into the possibilities of stellar attraction." + +"Discount that!" ordered Thornton. "What I want to know is whether it +could happen from the inside?" + +"Why not?" inquired Hooker. "A general shift in the mass would do it. So +would the mere application of force at the proper point." + +"It never happened before." + +"Of course not. Neither had seedless oranges until Burbank came along," +said Hooker. + +"Do you regard it as possible by any human agency?" inquired Thornton. + +"Why not?" repeated Hooker. "All you need is the energy. And it's lying +all round if you could only get at it. That's just what I'm working at +now. Radium, uranium, thorium, actinium--all the radioactive +elements--are, as everybody knows, continually disintegrating, +discharging the enormous energy that is imprisoned in their molecules. +It may take generations, epochs, centuries, for them to get rid of it +and transform themselves into other substances, but they will inevitably +do so eventually. They're doing with more or less of a rush what all the +elements are doing at their leisure. A single ounce of uranium contains +about the same amount of energy that could be produced by the combustion +of ten tons of coal--but it won't let the energy go. Instead it holds on +to it, and the energy leaks slowly, almost imperceptibly, away, like +water from a big reservoir tapped only by a tiny pipe. 'Atomic energy' +Rutherford calls it. Every element, every substance, has its ready to be +touched off and put to use. The chap who can find out how to release +that energy all at once will revolutionize the civilized world. It will +be like the discovery that water could be turned into steam and made to +work for us--multiplied a million times. If, instead of that energy just +oozing away and the uranium disintegrating infinitesimally each year, it +could be exploded at a given moment you could drive an ocean liner with +a handful of it. You could make the old globe stagger round and turn +upside down! Mankind could just lay off and take a holiday. But _how_?" + +Bennie enthusiastically waved his pipe at Thornton. + +"How! That's the question. Everybody's known about the possibilities, +for Soddy wrote a book about it; but nobody's ever suggested where the +key could be found to unlock that treasure-house of energy. Some chap +made up a novel once and pretended it was done, but he didn't say _how_. +But"--and he lowered his voice passionately--"I'm working at it, +and--and--I've nearly--nearly got it." + +Thornton, infected by his friend's excitement, leaned forward in his +chair. + +"Yes--nearly. If only my transformers hadn't melted! You see I got the +idea from Savaroff, who noticed that the activity of radium and other +elements wasn't constant, but varied with the degree of solar activity, +reaching its maximum at the periods when the sun spots were most +numerous. In other words, he's shown that the breakdown of the atoms of +radium and the other radioactive elements isn't spontaneous, as Soddy +and others had thought, but is due to the action of certain extremely +penetrating rays given out by the sun. These particular rays are the +result of the enormous temperature of the solar atmosphere, and their +effect upon radioactive substances is analogous to that of the +detonating cap upon dynamite. No one has been able to produce these rays +in the laboratory, although Hempel has suspected sometimes that traces +of them appeared in the radiations from powerful electric sparks. +Everything came to a halt until Hiroshito discovered thermic induction, +and we were able to elevate temperature almost indefinitely through a +process similar to the induction of high electric potentials by means of +transformers and the Ruhmkorff coil. + +"Hiroshito wasn't looking for a detonating ray and didn't have time to +bother with it, but I started a series of experiments with that end in +view. I got close--I am close, but the trouble has been to control the +forces set in motion, for the rapid rise in temperature has always +destroyed the apparatus." + +Thornton whistled. "And when you succeed?" he asked in a whisper. + +Hooker's face was transfigured. + +"When I succeed I shall control the world," he cried, and his voice +trembled. "But the damn thing either melts or explodes," he added with a +tinge of indignation. + +"You know about Hiroshito's experiments, of course; he used a quartz +bulb containing a mixture of neon gas and the vapour of mercury, placed +at the centre of a coil of silver wire carrying a big oscillatory +current. This induced a ring discharge in the bulb, and the temperature +of the vapour mixture rose until the bulb melted. He calculated that the +temperature of that part of the vapour which carried the current was +over 6,000°. You see, the ring discharge is not in contact with the wall +of the bulb, and can consequently be much hotter. It's like this." Here +Bennie drew with a burnt match on the back of an envelope a diagram of +something which resembled a doughnut in a chianti flask. + +Thornton scratched his head. "Yes," he said, "but that's an old +principle, isn't it? Why does Hiro--what's his name--call it--thermic +induction?" + +"Oriental imagination, probably," replied Bennie. "Hiroshito observed +that a sudden increase in the temperature of the discharge occurred at +the moment when the silver coil of his transformer became white hot, +which he explained by some mysterious inductive action of the heat +vibrations. I don't follow him at all. His theory's probably all wrong, +but he delivered the goods. He gave me the right tip, even if I have got +him lashed to the mast now. I use a tungsten spiral in a nitrogen +atmosphere in my transformer and replace the quartz bulb with a capsule +of zircorundum." + +"A capsule of what?" asked Thornton, whose chemistry was mid-Victorian. + +"Zircorundum," said Bennie, groping around in a drawer of his work +table. "It's an absolute nonconductor of heat. Look here, just stick +your finger in that." He held out to Thornton what appeared to be a +small test tube of black glass. Thornton, with a slight moral +hesitation, did as he was told, and Bennie, whistling, picked up the +oxyacetylene blowpipe, regarding it somewhat as a dog fancier might gaze +at an exceptionally fine pup. "Hold up your finger," said he to the +astronomer. "That's right--like that!" + +Thrusting the blowpipe forward, he allowed the hissing blue-white flame +to wrap itself round the outer wall of the tube--a flame which Thornton +knew could melt its way through a block of steel--but the astronomer +felt no sensation of heat, although he not unnaturally expected the +member to be incinerated. + +"Queer, eh?" said Bennie. "Absolute insulation! Beats the thermos +bottle, and requires no vacuum. It isn't quite what I want though, +because the disintegrating rays which the ring discharge gives out break +down the zirconium, which isn't an end-product of radioactivity. The +pressure in the capsule rises, due to the liberation of helium, and it +blows up, and the landlady or the police come up and bother me." + +Thornton was scrutinizing Bennie's rough diagram. "This ring discharge," +he meditated; "I wonder if it isn't something like a sunspot. You know +the spots are electron vortices with strong magnetic fields. I'll bet +you the Savaroff disintegrating rays come from the spots and not from +the whole surface of the sun!" + +"My word," said Bennie, with a grin of delight, "you occasionally have +an illuminating idea, even if you are a musty astronomer. I always +thought you were a sort of calculating machine, who slept on a logarithm +table. I owe you two drinks for that suggestion, and to scare a thirst +into you I'll show you an experiment that no living human being has ever +seen before. I can't make very powerful disintegrating rays yet, but I +can break down uranium, which is the easiest of all. Later on I'll be +able to disintegrate anything, if I have luck--that is, anything except +end-products. Then you'll see things fly. But, for the present, just +this." He picked up a thin plate of white metal. "This is the metal +we're going to attack, uranium--the parent of radium--and the whole +radioactive series, ending with the end-product lead." + +He hung the plate by two fine wires fastened to its corners, and +adjusted a coil of wire opposite its centre, while within the coil he +slipped a small black capsule. + +"This is the best we can do now," he said. "The capsule is made of +zircorundum, and we shall get only a trace of the disintegrating rays +before it blows up. But you'll see 'em, or, rather, you'll see the +lavender phosphorescence of the air through which they pass." + +He arranged a thick slab of plate glass between Thornton and the thermic +transformer, and stepping to the wall closed a switch. An oscillatory +spark discharge started off with a roar in a closed box, and the coil of +wire became white hot. + +"Watch the plate!" shouted Bennie. + +And Thornton watched. + +For ten or fifteen seconds nothing happened, and then a faint beam of +pale lavender light shot out from the capsule, and the metal plate swung +away from the incandescent coil as if blown by a gentle breeze. + +Almost instantly there was a loud report and a blinding flash of yellow +light so brilliant that for the next instant or two to Thornton's eyes +the room seemed dark. Slowly the afternoon light regained its normal +quality. Bennie relit his pipe unconcernedly. + +"That's the germ of the idea," he said between puffs. "That capsule +contains a mixture of vapours that give out disintegrating rays when the +temperature is raised by thermic induction above six thousand. Most of +'em are stopped by the zirconium atoms in the capsule, which break down +and liberate helium; and the temperature rises in the capsule until it +explodes, as you saw just now, with a flash of yellow helium light. The +rays that get out strike the uranium plate and cause the surface layer +of molecules to disintegrate, their products being driven off by the +atomic explosions with a velocity about equal to that of light, and it's +the recoil that deflects and swings the plate. The amount of uranium +decomposed in this experiment couldn't be detected by the most delicate +balance--small mass, but enormous velocity. See?" + +"Yes, I understand," answered Thornton. "It's the old, 'momentum equals +mass times velocity,' business we had in mechanics." + +"Of course this is only a toy experiment," Bennie continued. "It is what +the dancing pithballs of Franklin's time were to the multipolar, +high-frequency dynamo. But if we could control this force and handle it +on a large scale we could do anything with it--destroy the world, drive +a car against gravity off into space, shift the axis of the earth +perhaps!" + +It came to Thornton as he sat there, cigarette in hand, that poor Bennie +Hooker was going to receive the disappointment of his life. Within the +next five minutes his dreams would be dashed to earth, for he would +learn that another had stepped down to the pool of discovery before him. +For how many years, he wondered, had Bennie toiled to produce his +mysterious ray that should break down the atom and release the store of +energy that the genii of Nature had concealed there. And now Thornton +must tell him that all his efforts had gone for nothing! + +"And you believe that any one who could generate a ray such as you +describe could control the motion of the earth?" he asked. + +"Of course, certainly," answered Hooker. "He could either disintegrate +such huge quantities of matter that the mass of the earth would be +shifted and its polar axis be changed, or if radioactive +substances--pitchblende, for example--lay exposed upon the earth's +surface he could cause them to discharge their helium and other products +at such an enormous velocity that the recoil or reaction would +accelerate or retard the motion of the globe. It would be quite +feasible, quite simple--all one would need would be the disintegrating +ray." + +And then Thornton told Hooker of the flight of the giant Ring machine +from the north and the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas through the +apparent instrumentality of a ray of lavender light. Hooker's face +turned slightly pale and his unshaven mouth tightened. Then a smile of +exaltation illuminated his features. + +"He's done it!" he cried joyously. "He's done it on an engineering +scale. We pure-science dreamers turn up our noses at the engineers, but +I tell you the improvements in the apparatus part of the game come when +there is a big commercial demand for a thing and the engineering chaps +take hold of it. But _who_ is he and _where_ is he? I must get to him. I +don't suppose I can teach him much, but I've got a magnificent +experiment that we can try together." + +He turned to a littered writing-table and poked among the papers that +lay there. + +"You see," he explained excitedly, "if there is anything in the quantum +theory----Oh! but you don't care about that. The point is where _is_ the +chap?" + +And so Thornton had to begin at the beginning and tell Hooker all about +the mysterious messages and the phenomena that accompanied them. He +enlarged upon Pax's benignant intentions and the great problems +presented by the proposed interference of the United States Government +in Continental affairs, but Bennie swept them aside. The great thing, to +his mind, was to find and get into communication with Pax. + +"Ah! How he must feel! The greatest achievement of all time!" cried +Hooker radiantly. "How ecstatically happy! Earth blossoming like the +rose! Well-watered valleys where deserts were before. War abolished, +poverty, disease! Who can it be? Curie? No; she's bottled in Paris. +Posky, Langham, Varanelli--it can't be any one of those fellows. It +beats me! Some Hindoo or Jap maybe, but never Hiroshito! Now we must get +to him right away. So much to talk over." He walked round the room, +blundering into things, dizzy with the thought that his great dream had +come true. Suddenly he swept everything off the table on to the floor +and kicked his heels in the air. + +"Hooray!" he shouted, dancing round the room like a freshman. "Hooray! +Now I can take a holiday. And come to think of it, I'm as hungry as a +brontosaurus!" + +That night Thornton returned to Washington and was at the White House by +nine o'clock the following day. + +"It's all straight," he told the President. "The honestest man in the +United States has said so." + + + + +XI + + +The moon rose over sleeping Paris, silvering the silent reaches of the +Seine, flooding the deserted streets with mellow light, yet gently +retouching all the disfigurements of the siege. No lights illuminated +the cafés, no taxis dashed along the boulevards, no crowds loitered in +the Place de l'Opéra or the Place Vendôme. Yet save for these facts it +might have been the Paris of old time, unvisited by hunger, misery, or +death. The curfew had sounded. Every citizen had long since gone within, +extinguished his lights, and locked his door. Safe in the knowledge that +the Germans' second advance had been finally met and effectually blocked +sixty miles outside the walls, and that an armistice had been declared +to go into effect at midnight, Paris slumbered peacefully. + +Beyond the pellet-strewn fields and glacis of the second line of defence +the invader, after a series of terrific onslaughts, had paused, +retreated a few miles and intrenched himself, there to wait until the +starving city should capitulate. For four months he had waited, yet +Paris gave no sign of surrendering. On the contrary, it seemed to have +some mysterious means of self-support, and the war office, in daily +communication with London, reported that it could withstand the +investment for an indefinite period. Meantime the Germans reintrenched +themselves, built forts of their own upon which they mounted the siege +guns intended for the walls, and constructed an impregnable line of +entanglements, redoubts, and defences, which rendered it impossible for +any army outside the city to come to its relief. + +So rose the moon, turning white the millions of slate roofs, gilding the +traceries of the towers of Notre Dame, dimming the searchlights which, +like the antennæ of gigantic fireflies, constantly played round the city +from the summit of the Eiffel Tower. So slept Paris, confident that no +crash of descending bombs would shatter the blue vault of the starlit +sky or rend the habitations in which lay two millions of human beings, +assured that the sun would rise through the gray mists of the Seine upon +the ancient beauties of the Tuilleries and the Louvre unmarred by the +enemy's projectiles, and that its citizens could pass freely along its +boulevards without menace of death from flying missiles. For no shell +could be hurled a distance of sixty miles, and an armistice had been +declared. + + * * * * * + +Behind a small hill within the German fortifications a group of officers +stood in the moonlight, examining what looked superficially like the +hangar of a small dirigible. Nestling behind the hill it cast a black +rectangular shadow upon the trampled sand of the redoubt. A score of +artisans were busy filling a deep trench through which a huge pipe led +off somewhere--a sort of deadly plumbing, for the house sheltered a +monster cannon reënforced by jackets of lead and steel, the whole +encased in a cooling apparatus of intricate manufacture. From the open +end of the house the cylindrical barrel of the gigantic engine of war +raised itself into the air at an angle of forty degrees, and from the +muzzle to the ground below it was a drop of over eighty feet. On a track +running off to the north rested the projectiles side by side, resembling +in the dim light a row of steam boilers in the yard of a locomotive +factory. + +"Well," remarked one of the officers, turning to the only one of his +companions not in uniform. "'Thanatos' is ready." + +The man addressed was Von Heckmann, the most famous inventor of military +ordnance in the world, already four times decorated for his services to +the Emperor. + +"The labour of nine years!" he answered with emotion. "Nine long years +of self-denial and unremitting study! But to-night I shall be repaid, +repaid a thousand times." + +The officers shook hands with him one after the other, and the group +broke up; the men who were filling the trench completed their labours +and departed; and Von Heckmann and the major-general of artillery alone +remained, except for the sentries beside the gun. The night was balmy +and the moon rode in a cloudless sky high above the hill. They crossed +the enclosure, followed by the two sentinels, and entering a passage +reached the outer wall of the redoubt, which was in turn closed and +locked. Here the sentries remained, but Von Heckmann and the general +continued on behind the fortifications for some distance. + +"Well, shall we start the ball?" asked the general, laying his hand on +Von Heckmann's shoulder. But the inventor found it so hard to master his +emotion that he could only nod his head. Yet the ball to which the +general alluded was the discharging of a fiendish war machine toward an +unsuspecting and harmless city alive with sleeping people, and the +emotion of the inventor was due to the fact that he had devised and +completed the most atrocious engine of death ever conceived by the mind +of man--the Relay Gun. Horrible as is the thought, this otherwise normal +man had devoted nine whole years to the problem of how to destroy human +life at a distance of a hundred kilometres, and at last he had been +successful, and an emperor had placed with his own divinely appointed +hands a ribbon over the spot beneath which his heart should have been. + +The projectile of this diabolical invention was ninety-five centimetres +in diameter, and was itself a rifled mortar, which in full flight, +twenty miles from the gun and at the top of its trajectory, exploded in +mid-air, hurling forward its contained projectile with an additional +velocity of three thousand feet per second. This process repeated +itself, the final or core bomb, weighing over three hundred pounds and +filled with lyddite, reaching its mark one minute and thirty-five +seconds after the firing of the gun. This crowning example of the human +mind's destructive ingenuity had cost the German Government five million +marks and had required three years for its construction, and by no means +the least of its devilish capacities was that of automatically reloading +and firing itself at the interval of every ten seconds, its muzzle +rising, falling, or veering slightly from side to side with each +discharge, thus causing the shells to fall at wide distances. The +poisonous nature of the immense volumes of gas poured out by the +mastodon when in action necessitated the withdrawal of its crew to a +safe distance. But once set in motion it needed no attendant. It had +been tested by a preliminary shot the day before, which had been +directed to a point several miles outside the walls of Paris, the effect +of which had been observed and reported by high-flying German aeroplanes +equipped with wireless. Everything was ready for the holocaust. + +Von Heckmann and the general of artillery continued to make their way +through the intrenchments and other fortifications, until at a distance +of about a quarter of a mile from the redoubt where they had left the +Relay Gun they arrived at a small whitewashed cottage. + +"I have invited a few of my staff to join us," said the general to the +inventor, "in order that they may in years to come describe to their +children and their grandchildren this, the most momentous occasion in +the history of warfare." + +They turned the corner of the cottage and came upon a group of officers +standing by the wooden gate of the cottage, all of whom saluted at their +approach. + +"Good evening, gentlemen," said the general. "I beg to present the +members of my staff," turning to Von Heckmann. + +The officers stood back while the general led the way into the cottage, +the lower floor of which consisted of but a single room, used by the +recent tenants as a kitchen, dining-room, and living-room. At one end of +a long table, constructed by the regimental carpenter, supper had been +laid, and a tub filled with ice contained a dozen or more quarts of +champagne. Two orderlies stood behind the table, at the other end of +which was affixed a small brass switch connected with the redoubt and +controlled by a spring and button. The windows of the cottage were open, +and through them poured the light of the full moon, dimming the +flickering light of the candles upon the table. + +In spite of the champagne, the supper, and the boxes of cigars and +cigarettes, an atmosphere of solemnity was distinctly perceptible. It +was as if each one of these officers, hardened to human suffering by a +lifetime of discipline and active service, to say nothing of the years +of horror through which they had just passed, could not but feel that in +the last analysis the hurling upon an unsuspecting city of a rain of +projectiles containing the highest explosive known to warfare, at a +distance three times greater than that heretofore supposed to be +possible to science, and the ensuing annihilation of its inhabitants, +was something less for congratulation and applause than for sorrow and +regret. The officers, who had joked each other outside the gate, became +singularly quiet as they entered the cottage and gathered round the +table where Von Heckmann and the general had taken their stand by the +instrument. Utter silence fell upon the group. The mercury of their +spirits dropped from summer heat to below freezing. What was this thing +which they were about to do? + +Through the windows, at a distance of four hundred yards, the pounding +of the machinery which flooded the water jacket of the Relay Gun was +distinctly audible in the stillness of the night. The pressure of a +finger--a little finger--upon that electric button was all that was +necessary to start the torrent of iron and high explosives toward Paris. +By the time the first shell would reach its mark nine more would be on +their way, stretched across the midnight sky at intervals of less than +eight miles. And once started the stream would continue uninterrupted +for two hours. The fascinated eyes of all the officers fastened +themselves upon the key. None spoke. + +"Well, well, gentlemen!" exclaimed the general brusquely, "what is the +matter with you? You act as if you were at a funeral! Hans," turning to +the orderly, "open the champagne there. Fill the glasses. Bumpers all, +gentlemen, for the greatest inventor of all times, Herr von Heckmann, +the inventor of the Relay Gun!" + +The orderly sprang forward and hastily commenced uncorking bottles, +while Von Heckmann turned away to the window. + +"Here, this won't do, Schelling! You must liven things up a bit!" +continued the general to one of the officers. "This is a great occasion +for all of us! Give me that bottle." He seized a magnum of champagne +from the orderly and commenced pouring out the foaming liquid into the +glasses beside the plates. Schelling made a feeble attempt at a joke at +which the officers laughed loudly, for the general was a martinet and +had to be humoured. + +"Now, then," called out the general as he glanced toward the window, +"Herr von Heckmann, we are going to drink your health! Officers of the +First Artillery, I give you a toast--a toast which you will all remember +to your dying day! Bumpers, gentlemen! No heel taps! I give you the +health of 'Thanatos'--the leviathan of artillery, the winged bearer of +death and destruction--and of its inventor, Herr von Heckmann. Bumpers, +gentlemen!" The general slapped Von Heckmann upon the shoulder and +drained his glass. + +"'Thanatos!' Von Heckmann!" shouted the officers. And with one accord +they dashed their goblets to the stone flagging upon which they stood. + +"And now, my dear inventor," said the general, "to you belongs the +honour of arousing 'Thanatos' into activity. Are you ready, gentlemen? I +warn you that when 'Thanatos' snores the rafters will ring." + +Von Heckmann had stood with bowed head while the officers had drunk his +health, and he now hesitatingly turned toward the little brass switch +with its button of black rubber that glistened so innocently in the +candlelight. His right hand trembled. He dashed the back of his left +across his eyes. The general took out a large silver watch from his +pocket. "Fifty-nine minutes past eleven," he announced. "At one minute +past twelve Paris will be disembowelled. Put your finger on the button, +my friend. Let us start the ball rolling." + +Von Heckmann cast a glance almost of disquietude upon the faces of the +officers who were leaning over the table in the intensity of their +excitement. His elation, his exaltation, had passed from him. He seemed +overwhelmed at the momentousness of the act which he was about to +perform. Slowly his index finger crept toward the button and hovered +half suspended over it. He pressed his lips together and was about to +exert the pressure required to transmit the current of electricity to +the discharging apparatus when unexpectedly there echoed through the +night the sharp click of a horse's hoofs coming at a gallop down the +village street. The group turned expectantly to the doorway. + +An officer dressed in the uniform of an aide-de-camp of artillery +entered abruptly, saluted, and produced from the inside pocket of his +jacket a sealed envelope which he handed to the general. The interest of +the officers suddenly centred upon the contents of the envelope. The +general grumbled an oath at the interruption, tore open the missive, and +held the single sheet which it contained to the candlelight. + +"An armistice!" he cried disgustedly. His eye glanced rapidly over the +page. + + "_To the Major-General commanding the First Division of Artillery, + Army of the Meuse:_ + + "An armistice has been declared, to commence at midnight, pending + negotiations for peace. You will see that no acts of hostility + occur until you receive notice that war is to be resumed. + + "VON HELMUTH, + "Imperial Commissioner for War." + +The officers broke into exclamations of impatience as the general +crumpled the missive in his hand and cast it upon the floor. + +"_Donnerwetter!_" he shouted. "Why were we so slow? Curse the +armistice!" He glanced at his watch. It already pointed to after +midnight. His face turned red and the veins in his forehead swelled. + +"To hell with peace!" he bellowed, turning back his watch until the +minute hand pointed to five minutes to twelve. "To hell with peace, I +say! Press the button, Von Heckmann!" + +But in spite of the agony of disappointment which he now acutely +experienced, Von Heckmann did not fire. Sixty years of German respect +for orders held him in a viselike grip and paralyzed his arm. + +"I can't," he muttered. "I can't." + +The general seemed to have gone mad. Thrusting Von Heckmann out of the +way, he threw himself into a chair at the end of the table and with a +snarl pressed the black handle of the key. + +The officers gasped. Hardened as they were to the necessities of war, no +act of insubordination like the present had ever occurred within their +experience. Yet they must all uphold the general; they must all swear +that the gun was fired before midnight. The key clicked and a blue bead +snapped at the switch. They held their breaths, looking through the +window to the west. + +At first the night remained still. Only the chirp of the crickets and +the fretting of the aide-de-camp's horse outside the cottage could be +heard. Then, like the grating of a coffee mill in a distant kitchen when +one is just waking out of a sound sleep, they heard the faint, smothered +whir of machinery, a sharper metallic ring of steel against steel +followed by a gigantic detonation which shook the ground upon which the +cottage stood and overthrew every glass upon the table. With a roar like +the fall of a skyscraper the first shell hurled itself into the night. +Half terrified the officers gripped their chairs, waiting for the second +discharge. The reverberation was still echoing among the hills when the +second detonation occurred, shortly followed by the third and fourth. +Then, in intervals between the crashing explosions, a distant rumbling +growl, followed by a shuddering of the air, as if the night were +frightened, came up out of the west toward Paris, showing that the +projectiles were at the top of their flight and going into action. A +lake of yellow smoke formed in the pocket behind the hill where lay the +redoubt in which "Thanatos" was snoring. + +On the great race track of Longchamps, in the Bois de Boulogne, the vast +herd of cows, sheep, horses, and goats, collected together by the city +government of Paris and attended by fifty or sixty shepherds especially +imported from _les Landes_, had long since ceased to browse and had +settled themselves down into the profound slumber of the animal world, +broken only by an occasional bleating or the restless whinnying of a +stallion. On the race course proper, in front of the grandstand and +between it and the judge's box, four of these shepherds had built a +small fire and by its light were throwing dice for coppers. They were +having an easy time of it, these shepherds, for their flocks did not +wander, and all that they had to do was to see that the animals were +properly driven to such parts of the Bois as would afford proper +nourishment. + +"Well, _mes enfants_," exclaimed old Adrian Bannalec, pulling a +turnip-shaped watch from beneath his blouse and holding it up to the +firelight, "it's twelve o'clock and time to turn in. But what do you say +to a cup of chocolate first?" + +The others greeted the suggestion with approval, and going somewhere +underneath the grandstand, Bannalec produced a pot filled with water, +which he suspended with much dexterity over the fire upon the end of a +pointed stick. The water began to boil almost immediately, and they were +on the point of breaking their chocolate into it when, from what +appeared to be an immense distance, through the air there came a curious +rumble. + +"What was that?" muttered Bannalec. The sound was followed within a few +seconds by another, and after a similar interval by a third and fourth. + +"There was going to be an armistice," suggested one of the younger +herdsmen. He had hardly spoken before a much louder and apparently +nearer detonation occurred. + +"That must be one of our guns," said old Adrian proudly. "Do you hear +how much louder it speaks than those of the Germans?" + +Other discharges now followed in rapid succession, some fainter, some +much louder. And then somewhere in the sky they saw a flash of flame, +followed by a thunderous concussion which rattled the grandstand, and a +great fiery serpent came soaring through the heavens toward Paris. Each +moment it grew larger, until it seemed to be dropping straight toward +them out of the sky, leaving a trail of sparks behind it. + +"It's coming our way," chattered Adrian. + +"God have mercy upon us!" murmured the others. + +Rigid with fear, they stood staring with open mouths at the shell that +seemed to have selected them for the object of its flight. + +"God have mercy on our souls!" repeated Adrian after the others. + +Then there came a light like that of a million suns.... + +Alas for the wives and children of the herdsmen! And alas for the herds! +But better that the eight core bombs projected by "Thanatos" through the +midnight sky toward Paris should have torn the foliage of the Bois, +destroyed the grandstands of Auteuil and Longchamps, with sixteen +hundred innocent sheep and cattle, than that they should have sought +their victims among the crowded streets of the inner city. Lucky for +Paris that the Relay Gun had been sighted so as to sweep the metropolis +from the west to the east, and that though each shell approached nearer +to the walls than its preceding brother, none reached the ramparts. For +with the discharge of the eighth shell and the explosion of the first +core bomb filled with lyddite among the sleeping animals huddled on the +turf in front of the grandstands, something happened which the poor +shepherds did not see. + +The watchers in the Eiffel Tower, seeing the heavens with their +searchlights for German planes and German dirigibles, saw the first core +bomb bore through the sky from the direction of Verdun, followed by its +seven comrades, and saw each bomb explode in the Bois below. But as the +first shell shattered the stillness of the night and spread its +sulphureous and death-dealing fumes among the helpless cattle, the +watchers on the Tower saw a vast light burst skyward in the far-distant +east. + + * * * * * + +Two miles up the road from the village of Champaubert, Karl Biedenkopf, +a native of Hesse-Nassau and a private of artillery, was doing picket +duty. The moonlight turned the broad highroad toward Épernay into a +gleaming white boulevard down which he could see, it seemed to him, for +miles. The air was soft and balmy, and filled with the odour of hay +which the troopers had harvested "on behalf of the Kaiser." Across the +road "Gretchen," Karl's mare, grazed ruminatively, while the picket +himself sat on the stone wall by the roadside, smoking the Bremen cigar +which his corporal had given him after dinner. + +The night was thick with stars. They were all so bright that at first he +did not notice the comet which sailed slowly toward him from the +northwest, seemingly following the line of the German intrenchments from +Amiens, St.-Quentin, and Laon toward Rheims and Épernay. But the comet +was there, dropping a long yellow beam of light upon the sleeping hosts +that were beleaguering the outer ring of the French fortifications. +Suddenly the repose of Biedenkopf's retrospections was abruptly +disconcerted by the distant pounding of hoofs far down the road from +Verdun. He sprang off the wall, took up his rifle, crossed the road, +hastily adjusted "Gretchen's" bridle, leaped into the saddle, and +awaited the night rider, whoever he might be. At a distance of three +hundred feet he cried: "Halt!" The rider drew rein, hastily gave the +countersign, and Biedenkopf, recognizing the aide-de-camp, saluted and +drew aside. + +"There goes a lucky fellow," he said aloud. "Nothing to do but ride up +and down the roads, stopping wherever he sees a pleasant inn or a pretty +face, spending money like water, and never risking a hair of his head." + +It never occurred to him that maybe his was the luck. And while the +aide-de-camp galloped on and the sound of his horse's hoofs grew fainter +and fainter down the road toward the village, the comet came sailing +swiftly on overhead, deluging the fortifications with a blinding +orange-yellow light. It could not have been more than a mile away when +Biedenkopf saw it. Instantly his trained eye recognized the fact that +this strange round object shooting through the air was no wandering +celestial body. + +"_Ein Flieger!_" he cried hoarsely, staring at it in astonishment, +knowing full well that no dirigible or aeroplane of German manufacture +bore any resemblance to this extraordinary voyager of the air. + +A hundred yards down the road his field telephone was attached to a +poplar, and casting one furtive look at the Flying Ring he galloped to +the tree and rang up the corporal of the guard. But at the very instant +that his call was answered a series of terrific detonations shook the +earth and set the wires roaring in the receiver, so that he could hear +nothing. One--two--three--four of them, followed by a distant answering +boom in the west. + +And then the whole sky seemed full of fire. He was hurled backward upon +the road and lay half-stunned, while the earth discharged itself into +the air with a roar like that of ten thousand shells exploding all +together. The ground shook, groaned, grumbled, grated, and showers of +boards, earth, branches, rocks, vegetables, tiles, and all sorts of +unrecognizable and grotesque objects fell from the sky all about him. It +was like a gigantic and never-ending mine, or series of mines, in +continuous explosion, a volcano pouring itself upward out of the bowels +of an incandescent earth. Above the earsplitting thunder of the eruption +he heard shrill cries and raucous shoutings. Mounted men dashed past him +down the road, singly and in squadrons. A molten globe dropped through +the branches of the poplar, and striking the hard surface of the road at +a distance of fifty yards scattered itself like a huge ingot dropped +from a blast furnace. Great clouds of dust descended and choked him. A +withering heat enveloped him.... + +It was noon next day when Karl Biedenkopf raised his head and looked +about him. He thought first there had been a battle. But the sight that +met his eyes bore no resemblance to a field of carnage. Over his head he +noticed that the uppermost branches of the poplar had been seared as by +fire. The road looked as if the countryside had been traversed by a +hurricane. All sorts of débris filled the fields and everywhere there +seemed to be a thick deposit of blackened earth. Vaguely realizing that +he must report for duty, he crawled, in spite of his bursting head and +aching limbs, on all fours down the road toward the village. + +But he could not find the village. There was no village there; and soon +he came to what seemed to be the edge of a gigantic crater, where the +earth had been uprooted and tossed aside as if by some huge convulsion +of nature. Here and there masses of inflammable material smoked and +flickered with red flames. His eyes sought the familiar outlines of the +redoubts and fortifications, but found them not. And where the village +had been there was a great cavern in the earth, and the deepest part of +the cavern, or so it seemed to his half-blinded sight, was at about the +point where the cottage had stood which his general had used as his +headquarters, the spot where the night before that general had raised +his glass of bubbling wine and toasted "Thanatos," the personification +of death, and called his officers to witness that this was the greatest +moment in the history of warfare, a moment that they would all remember +to their dying day. + + + + +XII + + +The shabby-genteel little houses of the Appian Way, in Cambridge, whose +window-eyes with their blue-green lids had watched Bennie Hooker come +and go, trudging back and forth to lectures and recitations, first as +boy and then as man, for thirty years, must have blinked with amazement +at the sight of the little professor as he started on the afterward +famous Hooker Expedition to Labrador in search of the Flying Ring. + +For the five days following Thornton's unexpected visit Bennie, existing +without sleep and almost without food save for his staple of +ready-to-serve chocolate, was the centre of a whirl of books, +logarithms, and calculations in the University Library, and constituted +himself an unmitigated, if respected, pest at the Cambridge Observatory. +Moreover--and this was the most iconoclastic spectacle of all to his +conservative pedagogical neighbours in the Appian Way--telegraph boys on +bicycles kept rushing to and fro in a stream between the Hooker +boarding-house and Harvard Square at all hours of the day and night. + +For Bennie had lost no time and had instantly started in upon the same +series of experiments to locate the origin of the phenomena which had +shaken the globe as had been made use of by Professor von Schwenitz at +the direction of General von Helmuth, the Imperial German Commissioner +for War, at Mainz. The result had been approximately identical, and +Hooker had satisfied himself that somewhere in the centre of Labrador +his fellow-scientist--the discoverer of the Lavender Ray--was conducting +the operations that had resulted in the dislocation of the earth's axis +and retardation of its motion. Filled with a pure and unselfish +scientific joy, it became his sole and immediate ambition to find the +man who had done these things, to shake him by the hand, and to compare +notes with him upon the now solved problems of thermic induction and of +atomic disintegration. + +But how to get there? How to reach him? For Prof. Bennie Hooker had +never been a hundred miles from Cambridge in his life, and a journey to +Labrador seemed almost as difficult as an attempt to reach the pole. Off +again then to the University Library, with pale but polite young ladies +hastening to fetch him atlases, charts, guidebooks, and works dealing +with sport and travel, until at last the great scheme unfolded itself to +his mind--the scheme that was to result in the perpetuation of atomic +disintegration for the uses of mankind and the subsequent alteration of +civilization, both political and economic. Innocently, ingeniously, +ingenuously, he mapped it all out. No one must know what he was about. +Oh, no! He must steal away, in disguise if need be, and reach Pax alone. +Three would be a crowd in that communion of scientific thought! He must +take with him the notes of his own experiments, the diagrams of his +apparatus, and his precious zirconium; and he must return with the great +secret of atomic disintegration in his breast, ready, with the +discoverer's permission, to give it to the dry and thirsty world. And +then, indeed, the earth would blossom like the rose! + +A strange sight, the start of the Hooker Expedition! + +Doctor Jelly's coloured housemaid had just thrown a pail of blue-gray +suds over his front steps--it was 6:30 A.M.--and was on the point of +resignedly kneeling and swabbing up the doctor's porch, when she saw the +door of the professor's residence open cautiously and a curious human +exhibit, the like of which had ne'er before been seen on sea or land, +surreptitiously emerge. It was Prof. Bennie Hooker--disguised as a +salmon fisherman! + +Over a brand-new sportsman's knickerbocker suit of screaming yellow +check he had donned an English mackintosh. On his legs were gaiters, and +on his head a helmetlike affair of cloth with a visor in front and +another behind, with eartabs fastened at the crown with a piece of black +ribbon--in other words a "Glengarry." The suit had been manufactured in +Harvard Square, and was a triumph of sartorial art on the part of one +who had never been nearer to a real fisherman than a coloured fashion +plate. However, it did suggest a sportsman of the variety usually +portrayed in the comic supplements, and, to complete the picture, in +Professor Hooker's hands and under his arms were yellow pigskin bags and +rod cases, so that he looked like the show window of a harness store. + +"Fo' de land sakes!" exclaimed the Jellys' coloured maid, oblivious of +her suds. "Fo' de Lawd! Am dat Perfesser Hookey?" + +It was! But a new and glorified professor, with a soul thrilling to the +joy of discovery and romance, with a flash in his eyes, and the savings +of ten years in a large roll in his left-hand knickerbocker pocket. + +Thus started the Hooker Expedition, which discovered the Flying Ring and +made the famous report to the Smithsonian Institution after the +disarmament of the nations. But could the nations have seen the +expedition as it emerged from its boarding-house that September morning +they would have rubbed their eyes. + +With the utmost difficulty Prof. Bennie Hooker negotiated his bags and +rod cases as far as Harvard Square, where, through the assistance of a +friendly conductor with a sense of humour, he was enabled to board an +electric surface car to the North Station. + +Beyond the start up the River Moisie his imagination refused to carry +him. But he had a faith that approximated certainty that over the Height +of Land--just over the edge--he would find Pax and the Flying Ring. +During all the period required for his experiments and preparations he +had never once glanced at a newspaper or inquired as to the progress of +the war that was rapidly exterminating the inhabitants of the globe. +Thermic induction, atomic disintegration, the Lavender Ray, these were +the Alpha, the Sigma, the Omega of his existence. + +But meantime[3] the war had gone on with all its concomitant horror, +suffering, and loss of life, and the representatives of the nations +assembled at Washington had been feverishly attempting to unite upon the +terms of a universal treaty that should end militarism and war forever. +And thereafter, also, although Professor Hooker was sublimely +unconscious of the fact, the celebrated conclave, known as Conference +No. 2, composed of the best-known scientific men from every laud, was +sitting, perspiring, in the great lecture hall of the Smithsonian +Institution, its members shouting at one another in a dozen different +languages, telling each other what they did and didn't know, and +becoming more and more confused and entangled in an underbrush of +contradictory facts and observations and irreconcilable theories until +they were making no progress whatever--which was precisely what the +astute and plausible Count von Koenitz, the German Ambassador, had +planned and intended. + +[Footnote 3: Up to the date of the armistice.] + +The Flying Ring did not again appear, and in spite of the uncontroverted +testimony of Acting-Consul Quinn, Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad, and a +thousand others who had actually seen the Lavender Ray, people began +gradually, almost unconsciously, to assume that the destruction of the +Atlas Mountains had been the work of an unsuspected volcano and that the +presence of the Flying Ring had been a coincidence and not the cause of +the disruption. So the incident passed by and public attention +refocussed itself upon the conflict on the plains of Châlons-sur-Marne. +Only Bill Hood, Thornton, and a few others in the secret, together with +the President, the Cabinet, and the members of Conference No. 1 and of +Conference No. 2, truly apprehended the significance of what had +occurred, and realized that either war or the human race must pass away +forever. And no one at all, save only the German Ambassador and the +Imperial German Commissioners, suspected that one of the nations had +conceived and was putting into execution a plan designed to result in +the acquirement of the secret of how the earth could be rocked and in +the capture of the discoverer. For the _Sea Fox_, bearing the German +expeditionary force, had sailed from Amsterdam twelve days after the +conference held at Mainz between Professor von Schwenitz and General von +Helmuth, and having safely rounded the Orkneys was now already well on +its course toward Labrador. Bennie Hooker, however, was ignorant of all +these things. Like an immigrant with a tag on his arm, he sat on the +train which bore him toward Quebec, his ticket stuck into the band on +his hat, dreaming of a transformer that wouldn't--couldn't--melt at only +six thousand degrees. + +When Professor Hooker awoke in his room at the hotel in Quebec the +morning after his arrival there, he ate a leisurely breakfast, and +having smoked a pipe on the terrace, strolled down to the wharves along +the river front. Here to his disgust he learned that the Labrador +steamer, the _Druro_, would not sail until the following Thursday--a +three days' wait. Apparently Labrador was a less-frequented locality +than he had supposed. He mastered his impatience, however, and +discovering a library presided over by a highly intelligent graduate of +Edinburgh, he became so interested in various profound treatises on +physics which he discovered that he almost missed his boat. + +Assisted by the head porter, and staggering under the weight of his new +rod cases and other impedimenta, Bennie boarded the _Druro_ on Thursday +morning, engaged a stateroom, and purchased a ticket for Seven Islands, +which is the nearest harbour to the mouth of the River Moisie. She was a +large and comfortable river steamer of about eight hundred and fifty +tons, and from her appearance belied the fact that she was the +connecting link between civilization and the desolate and ice-clad +wastes of the Far North, as in fact she was. The captain regarded Bennie +with indifference, if not disrespect, grunted, and ascending to the +pilot house blew the whistle. Quebec, with its teeming wharves and +crowded shipping, overlooked by the cliffs that made Wolfe famous, +slowly fell behind. Off their leeward bow the Isle of Orléans swung +nearer and swept past, its neat homesteads inviting the weary traveller +to pastoral repose. The river cleared. Low, farm-clad shores began to +slip by. The few tourists and returning habitans settled themselves in +the bow and made ready for their voyage. + +There would have been much to interest the ordinary American traveller +in this comparatively unfrequented corner of his native continent; but +our salmon fisherman, having conveniently disposed of his baggage, +immediately retired to his stateroom and, intent on saving time, +proceeded, wholly oblivious of the _Druro_, to read passionately several +exceedingly uninviting looking books which he produced from his valise. +The _Druro_, quite as oblivious to Professor Hooker, proceeded on her +accustomed way, passed by Tadousac, and made her first stop at the +Godbout. Bennie, finding the boat no longer in motion, reappeared on +deck under the mistaken impression that they had reached the end of the +voyage, for he was unfamiliar with the topography of the St. Lawrence, +and in fact had very vague ideas as to distances and the time required +to traverse them by rail or boat. + +At the Godbout the _Druro_ dropped a habitan or two, a few boatloads of +steel rods, crates of crockery and tobacco, and then thrust her bow out +into the stream and steered down river, rounding at length the Pointe +des Monts and winding in behind the Isles des Oeufs to the River +Pentecoute, where she deposited some more habitans, including a priest +in a black soutane, who somewhat incongruously was smoking a large +cigar. Then, nosing through a fog bank and breaking out at last into +sunlight again, she steamed across and put in past the Carousel, that +picturesque and rocky headland, into Seven Islands Bay. Here she +anchored, and, having discharged cargo, steamed out by the Grand Boule, +where eighteen miles beyond the islands Bennie saw the pilot house of +the old _St. Olaf_, of unhappy memory, just lifting above the water. + +He had emerged from the retirement of his stateroom only on being asked +by the steward for his ticket and learning that the _Druro_ was nearing +the end of her journey. For nearly two days he had been submerged in +Soddy on The Interpretation of Radium. The _Druro_ was running along a +sandy, low-lying beach about half a mile offshore. They were nearing the +mouth of a wide river. The volume of black fresh water from the Moisie +rushed out into the St. Lawrence until it met the green sea water, +causing a sharp demarcation of colour and a no less pronounced conflict +of natural forces. For, owing to the pressure of the tide against the +solid mass of the fresh stream, acres of water unexpectedly boiled on +all sides, throwing geysers of foam twenty feet or more into the air, +and then subsided. Off the point the engine bell rang twice, and the +_Druro_ came to a pause. + +Bennie, standing in the bow, in his sportsman's cap and waterproof, +hugging his rod cases to his breast, watched while a heterogeneous fleet +of canoes, skiffs, and sailboats came racing out from shore, for the +steamer does not land here, but hangs in the offing and lighters its +cargo ashore. Leading the lot was a sort of whaleboat propelled by two +oars on one side and one on the other, and in the sternsheets sat a +rosy-cheeked, good-natured looking man with a smooth-shaven face who +Bennie knew must be Malcolm Holliday. + +"Hello, Cap!" shouted Holliday. "Any passengers?" + +The captain from the pilot house waved contemptuously in Bennie's +general direction. + +"Howdy!" said Holliday. "What do you want? What can I do for you?" + +"I thought I'd try a little salmon fishing," shrieked Bennie back at +him. + +Holliday shook his head. "Sorry," he bellowed, "river's leased. Besides, +the officers[4] are here." + +[Footnote 4: Along the St. Lawrence and the Labrador coast a salmon +fisherman is always spoken of by natives and local residents as an +"officer," the reason being that most of the sportsmen who visit these +waters are English army officers. Hence salmon fishermen are universally +termed "officers," and a habitan will describe the sportsmen who have +rented a certain river as "_les officiers de la Moisie_" or "_les +officiers de la Romaine_."] + +"Oh!" answered Bennie ruefully. "I didn't know. I supposed I could fish +anywhere." + +"Well, you can't!" snapped Holliday, puzzled by the little man's curious +appearance. + +"I suppose I can go ashore, can't I?" insisted Bennie somewhat +indignantly. "I'll just take a camping trip then. I'd like to see the +big salmon cache up at the forks if I can't do anything else." + +Instantly Holliday scented something. "Another fellow after gold," he +muttered to himself. + +Just at that moment, the tide being at the ebb, a hundred acres of green +water off the _Druro's_ bow broke into whirling waves and jets of foam +again. All about them, and a mile to seaward, these merry men danced by +the score. Bennie thrilled at the beauty of it. The whaleboat containing +Holliday was now right under the ship's bows. + +"I want to look round anyhow," expostulated Bennie. "I've come all the +way from Boston." He felt himself treated like a criminal, felt the +suspicion in Holliday's eye. + +The factor laughed. "In that case you certainly deserve sympathy." Then +he hesitated. "Oh, well, come along," he said finally. "We'll see what +we can do for you." + +A rope ladder had been thrown over the side and one of the sailors now +lowered Bennie's luggage into the boat. The professor followed, avoiding +with difficulty stepping on his mackintosh as he climbed down the +slippery rounds. Holliday grasped his hand and yanked him to a seat in +the stern. + +"Yes," he repeated, "if you've come all the way from Boston I guess +we'll have to put you up for a few days anyway." + +A crate of canned goods, a parcel of mail, and a huge bundle of +newspapers were deposited in the bow. Holliday waved his hand. The +_Druro_ churned the water and swung out into midstream again. Bennie +looked curiously after her. To the north lay a sandy shore dotted by a +scraggy forest of dwarf spruce and birch. A few fishing huts and a mass +of wooden shanties fringed the forest. To the east, seaward, many miles +down that great stretch of treacherous, sullen river waited a gray bank +of fog. But overhead the air was crystalline with that sparkling, +scratchy brilliance that is found only in northern climes. Nature seemed +hard, relentless. With his feet entangled in rod cases Professor Hooker +wondered for a moment what on earth he was there for, landing on this +inhospitable coast. Then his eyes sought the genial face of Malcolm +Holliday and hope sprang up anew. For there is that about this genial +frontiersman that draws all men to him alike, be they Scotch or English, +Canadian habitans or Montagnais, and he is the king of the coast, as his +father was before him, or as was old Peter McKenzie, the head factor, +who incidentally cast the best salmon fly ever thrown east of Montreal +or south of Ungava. Bennie found comfort in Holliday's smile, and felt +toward him as a child does toward its mother. + +They neared shore and ran alongside a ramshackle pier, up the slippery +poles of which Bennie was instructed to clamber. Then, dodging rotten +boards and treacherous places, he gained the sand of the beach and stood +at last on Labrador. A group of Montagnais picked up the professor's +luggage and, headed by Holliday, they started for the latter's house. It +was a strange and amusing landing of an expedition the results of which +have revolutionized the life of the inhabitants of the entire globe. No +such inconspicuous event has ever had so momentous a conclusion. And now +when Malcolm Holliday makes his yearly trip home to Quebec, to report to +the firm of Holliday Brothers, who own all the nets far east of +Anticosti, he spends hours at the Club des Voyageurs, recounting in +detail all the circumstances surrounding the arrival of Professor Hooker +and how he took him for a gold hunter. + +"Anyhow," he finishes, "I knew he wasn't a salmon fisherman in spite of +his rods and cases, for he didn't know a Black Dose from a Thunder and +Lightning or a Jock Scott, and he thought you could catch salmon with a +worm!" + +It was true wholly. Bennie did suppose one killed the king of game fish +as he had caught minnows in his childhood, and his geologic researches +in the Harvard Library had not taught him otherwise. Neither had his +tailor. + +"My dear fellow," said Holliday as they smoked their pipes on the narrow +board piazza at the Post, "of course I'll help you all I can, but you've +come at a bad season of the year all round. In the first place, you'll +be eaten alive by black flies, gnats, and mosquitoes." He slapped +vigorously as he spoke. "And you'll have the devil of a job getting +canoe men. You see all the Montagnais are down here at the settlement +'making their mass.' Once a year they leave the hunting grounds up by +the Divide and beyond and come down river to '_faire la messe_'--it's a +sacred duty with 'em. They're very religious, as you probably know--a +fine lot, too, take 'em altogether, gentle, obedient, industrious, +polite, cheerful, and fair to middling honest. They have a good deal of +French blood--a bit diluted, but it's there." + +"Can't I get a few to go along with me?" asked Bennie anxiously. + +"That's a question," answered the factor meditatively. "You know how the +birds--how caribou--migrate every year. Well, these Montagnais are just +like them. They have a regular routine. Each man has a line of traps of +his own, all the way up to the Height of Land. They all go up river in +the autumn with their winter's supply of pork, flour, tea, powder, lead, +axes, files, rosin to mend their canoes, and castoreum--made out of +beaver glands, you know--to take away the smell of their hands from the +baited traps. They go up in families, six or seven canoes together, and +as each man reaches his own territory his canoe drops out of the +procession and he makes a camp for his wife and babies. Then he spends +the winter--six or seven months--in the woods following his line of +traps. By and by the ice goes out and he begins to want some society. He +hasn't seen a priest for ten months or so, and he's afraid of the +_loup-garou_, for all I know. So he comes down river, takes his Newport +season here at Moisie, and goes to mass and staves off the _loup-garou_. +They're all here now. Maybe you can get a couple to go up river and +maybe you can't." + +Then observing Bennie's crestfallen expression, he added: + +"But we'll see. Perhaps you can get Marc St. Ange and Edouard Moreau, +both good fellows. They've made their mass and they know the country +from here to Ungava. There's Marc now--_Venez ici_, Marc St. Ange." A +swarthy, lithe Montagnais was coming down the road, and Holliday +addressed him rapidly in habitan French: "This gentleman wishes to go up +river to the forks to see the big cache. Will you go with him?" + +The Montagnais bowed to Professor Hooker and pondered the suggestion. +Then he gesticulated toward the north and seemed to Bennie to be telling +a long story. + +Holliday laughed again. "Marc says he will go," he commented shortly. +"But he says also that if the Great Father of the Marionettes is angry +he will come back." + +"What does he mean by that?" asked Bennie. + +"Why, when the aurora borealis--Northern Lights--plays in the sky the +Indians always say that the 'marionettes are dancing.' About four weeks +ago we had some electrical disturbances up here and a kind of an +earthquake. It scared these Indians silly. There was a tremendous +display, almost like a volcano. It beat anything I ever saw, and I've +been here fifteen years. The Indians said the Father of the Marionettes +was angry because they didn't dance enough to suit him, and that he was +making them dance. Then some of them caught a glimpse of a shooting +star, or a comet, or something, and called it the Father of the +Marionettes. They had quite a time--held masses, and so on--and were +really cut up. But the thing is over now, except for the regular, +ordinary display." + +"When can they be ready?" inquired Bennie eagerly. + +"To-morrow morning," replied Holliday. "Marc will engage his uncle. +They're all right. Now how about an outfit? But don't talk any more +about salmon. I know what you're after--it's _gold_!" + + * * * * * + +The moon was still hanging low over the firs at four o'clock the next +morning when three black and silent shadows emerged from the factor's +house and made their way, cautiously and with difficulty, across the +sand to where a canoe had been run into the riffles of the beach. Marc +came first, carrying a sheet-iron stove with a collapsible funnel; then +his Uncle Edouard, shouldering a bundle consisting of a tent and a +couple of sacks of flour and pork; and lastly Professor Hooker with his +mackintosh and rifle, entirely unaware of the fact that his careful +guides had removed all the cartridges from his luggage lest he should +shoot too many caribou and so spoil the winter's food supply. It was +cold, almost frosty. In the black flood of the river the stars burned +with a chill, wavering light. Bennie put on his mackintosh with a +shiver. The two guides quietly piled the luggage in the centre of the +canoe, arranged a seat for their passenger, picked up their paddles, +shoved off, and took their places in bow and stern. + +No lights gleamed in the windows of Moisie. The lap of the ripples +against the birch side of the canoe, the gurgle of the water round the +paddle blades, and the rush of the bow as, after it had paused on the +withdraw, it leaped forward on the stroke, were the only sounds that +broke the deathlike silence of the semi-arctic night. Bennie struck a +match, and it flared red against the black water as he lit his pipe, but +he felt a great stirring within his little breast, a great courage to +dare, to do, for he was off, really off, on his great hunt, his search +for the secret that would remake the world. With the current whispering +against its sides the canoe swept in a wide circle to midstream. The +moon was now partially obscured behind the treetops. To the east a faint +glow made the horizon seem blacker than ever. Ahead the wide waste of +the dark river seemed like an engulfing chasm. Drowsiness enwrapped +Professor Hooker, a drowsiness intensified by the rythmic swinging of +the paddles and the pile of bedding against which he reclined. He closed +his eyes, content to be driven onward toward the region of his hopes, +content almost to fall asleep. + +"Hi!" suddenly whispered Marc St. Ange. "_Voilà! Le père des +marionettes!_" + +Bennie awoke with a start that almost upset the canoe. The blood rushed +to his face and sang in his ears. + +"Where?" he cried. "Where?" + +"_Au nord_," answered Marc. "_Mais il descend!_" + +Professor Hooker stared in the direction of Marc's uplifted paddle. Was +he deceived? Was the wish father to the thought? Or did he really see at +an immeasurable distance upon the horizon a quickly dying trail of +orange-yellow light? He rubbed his eyes--his heart beating wildly under +his sportsman's suiting. But the north was black beyond the coming dawn. + +Old Edouard grunted. + +"_Vous êtes fou!_" he muttered to his nephew, and drove his paddle deep +into the water. + +Day broke with staccato emphasis. The sun swung up out of Europe and +burned down upon the canoe with a heat so equatorial in quality that +Bennie discarded both his mackintosh and his sporting jacket. All signs +of human life had disappeared from the distant banks of the river and +the bow of the canoe faced a gray-blue flood emerging from a wilderness +of scrubby trees. A few gulls flopped their way coast-ward, and at rare +intervals a salmon leaped and slashed the slow-moving surface into a +boiling circle; but for the rest their surroundings were as set, as +immobile, as the painted scenery of a stage, save where the current +swept the scattered promontories of the shore. But they moved steadily +north. So wearied was Bennie with the unaccustomed light and fresh air +that by ten o'clock he felt the day must be over, although the sun had +not yet reached the zenith. Unexpectedly Marc and Edouard turned the +canoe quietly into a shallow, and beached her on a spit of white sand. +In three minutes Edouard had a small fire snapping, and handed Bennie a +cup of tea. How wonderful it seemed--a genuine elixir! And then he felt +the stab of a mosquito, and putting up his hand found it blotched with +blood. And the black flies came also. Soon the professor was tramping up +and down, waving his handkerchief and clutching wildly at the air. Then +they pushed off again. + +The sun dropped westward as they turned bend after bend, disclosing ever +the same view beyond. Shadows of rocks and trees began to jut across the +eddies. A great heron, as big as an ostrich, or so he seemed, arose +awkwardly and flapped off, trailing yards of legs behind him. Then +Bennie put on first his jacket and then his mackintosh. He realized that +his hands were numb. The sun was now only a foot or so above the sky +line. + +This time it was Marc who grunted and thrust the canoe toward the +river's edge with a sideways push. It grounded on a belt of sand and +they dragged it ashore. Bennie, who had been looking forward to the +night with vivid apprehension, now discovered to his great happiness +that the chill was keeping away the black flies. Joyfully he assisted in +gathering dry sticks, driving tent pegs, and picking reindeer moss for +bedding. Then as darkness fell Edouard fried eggs and bacon, and with +their boots off and their stockinged feet toasting to the blaze the +three men ate as becomes men who have laboured fifteen hours in the open +air. They drank tin cups of scalding tea, a pint at a time, and found it +good; and they smoked their pipes with their backs propped against the +tree trunks and found it heaven. Then as the stars came out and the +woods behind them snapped with strange noises, Edouard took his pipe +from his mouth. + +"It's getting cold," said he. "The marionettes will dance to-night." + +Bennie heard him as if across a great, yawning gulf. Even the firelight +seemed hundreds of yards away. The little professor was "all in," and he +sat with his chin dropped again to his chest, until he heard Marc +exclaim: + +"_Voilà! Elles dansent!_" + +He raised his eyes. Just across the black, silent sweep of the river +three giant prismatic searchlights were playing high toward the +polestar, such searchlights as the gods might be using in some monstrous +game. They wavered here and there, shifting and dodging, faded and +sprang up again, till Bennie, dizzy, closed his eyes. The lights were +still dancing in the north as he stumbled to his couch of moss. + +"_Toujour les marionettes!_" whispered Marc gently, as he might to a +child. "_Bon soir, monsieur._" + +The tent was hot and dazzling white above his head when low voices, +footsteps, and the clink of tin against iron aroused the professor from +a profound coma. The guides had already loaded the canoe and were +waiting for him. The sun was high. Apologetically he pulled on his +boots, and stepping to the sand dashed the icy water into his face. His +muscles groaned and rasped. His neck refused to respond to his desires +with its accustomed elasticity. But he drank his tea and downed his +scrambled eggs with an enthusiasm unknown in Cambridge, Massachusetts. +Marc gave him a hand into the canoe and they were off. The day had +begun. + +The river narrowed somewhat and the shores grew more rocky. At noon they +lunched on another sand-spit. At sunset they saw a caribou. Night came. +"Always the marionettes." Thus passed nine days--like a dream to Bennie; +and then came the first adventure. + +It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of the tenth day of their +trip up the Moisie when Marc suddenly stopped paddling and gazed +intently shoreward. After a moment he said something in a low tone to +Edouard, and they turned the canoe and drove it rapidly toward a small +cove half hidden by rocks. Bennie, straining his eyes, could see nothing +at first, but when the canoe was but ten yards from shore he caught +sight of the motionless figure of a man, lying on his face with his head +nearly in the water. Marc turned him over gently, but the limbs fell +limp, one leg at a grotesque angle to the knee. Bennie saw instantly +that it was broken. The Indian's face was white and drawn, no doubt with +pain. + +"_Il est mort!_" said Marc slowly, crossing himself. + +Edouard shrugged his shoulders and fetched a small flask of brandy from +the professor's sack. Forcing open the jaws, he poured a few drops into +the man's mouth. The Indian choked and opened his eyes. Edouard grunted. + +"_La jeunesse pense qu'elle sait tout!_" he remarked scornfully. + +Thus they found Nichicun, without whom Bennie might never have +accomplished the object of his quest. It took three days to nurse the +half-dead and altogether starved Montagnais back to life, but he +received the tenderest care. Marc shot a young caribou and gave him the +blood to drink, and made a ragout to put the flesh back on his bones. +Meanwhile the professor slept long hours on the moss and took a +much-needed rest; and by degrees they learned from Nichicun the story of +his misfortune--the story that forms a part of the chronicle of the +expedition, which can be read at the Smithsonian Institution. + +He was a Montagnais, he said, with a line of traps to the northeast of +the Height of Land, and last winter he had had very bad luck indeed. +There had been less and less in his traps and he had seen no caribou. So +he had taken his wife, who was sick, and had gone over into the Nascopee +country for food, and there his wife had died. He had made up his mind +very late in the season to come down to Moisie and make his mass and get +a new wife, and start a fresh line of traps in the autumn. All the other +Montagnais had descended the river in their canoes long before, so he +was alone. His provisions had given out and he saw no caribou. He began +to think he would surely starve to death. And then one evening, on the +point just above their present camp, he had seen a caribou and shot it, +but he had been too weak to take good aim and had only broken its +shoulder. It lay kicking among the boulders, pushing itself along by its +hind legs, and he had feared that it would escape. In his haste to reach +it he had slipped on a wet rock and fallen and broken his leg. In spite +of the pain he had crawled on, and then had taken place a wild, terrible +fight for life between the dying man and the dying beast. + +He could not remember all that had occurred--he had been kicked, gored, +and bitten; but finally he had got a grip on its throat and slashed it +with his knife. Then, lying there on the ground beside it, he drank its +blood and cut off the raw flesh in strips for food. Finally one day he +had crawled to the river for water and had fainted. + +The professor and his guides made for the Indian a hut of rocks and +bark, and threw a great pile of moss into the corner of it for him to +lie on. They carved a splint for his leg and bound it up, and cut a huge +heap of firewood for him, smoking caribou meat and hanging it up in the +hut. Somebody would come up river and find him, or if not, the three men +would pick him up on their return. For this was right and the law of the +woods. But never a word of particular interest to Prof. Bennie Hooker +did Nichicun speak until the night before their departure, although the +reason and manner of his speaking were natural enough. It happened as +follows: but first it should be said that the Nascopees are an ignorant +and barbarous tribe, dirty and treacherous, upon whom the Montagnais +look down with contempt and scorn. They do not even wear civilized +clothes, and their ways are not the ways of _les bons sauvages_. They +have no priests; they do not come to the coast; and the Montagnais will +not mingle with them. Thus it bespoke the hunger of Nichicun that he was +willing to go into their country. + +As he sat round the fire with Marc and Edouard on that last night, +Nichicun spoke his mind of the Nascopees, and Marc translated freely for +Bennie's edification. + +No, the injured Montagnais told them, the Nascopees were not nice; they +were dirty. They ate decayed food and they never went to mass. Moreover, +they were half-witted. While he was there they were all planning to +migrate for the most absurd reason--what do you suppose? Magic! They +claimed the end of the world was coming! Of course it was coming some +time. But they said now, right away. But why? Because the marionettes +were dancing so much. And they had seen the Father of the Marionettes +floating in the sky and making thunder! Fools! But the strangest thing +of all, they said they could hunt no longer, for they were afraid to +cross something--an iron serpent that stung with fire if you touched it, +and killed you! What foolishness! An iron serpent! But he had asked them +and they had sworn on the holy cross that it was true. + +Bennie listened with a chill creeping up his spine. But it would never +do to hint what this disclosure meant to him. Between puffs of his pipe +he asked casual, careless questions of Nichicun. These Nascopees, for +instance, how far off might their land be? And where did they assert +this extraordinary serpent of iron to be? Were there rivers in the +Nascopee country? Did white men ever go there? All these things the +wounded Montagnais told him. It appeared, moreover, that the Rassini +River was near the Nascopee territory, and that it flowed into the +Moisie only seven miles above the camp. All that night the marionettes +danced in Bennie's brain. + +Next morning they propped Nichicun on his bed of moss, laid a rifle and +a box of matches beside him, and bade him farewell. At the mouth of the +Rassini River Prof. Bennie Hooker held up his hand and announced that he +was going to the Nascopee country. The canoe halted abruptly. Old +Edouard declared that they had been engaged only to go to the big cache, +and that their present trip was merely by way of a little excursion to +see the river. They had no supplies for such a journey, no proper amount +of ammunition. No, they would deposit the professor on the nearest +sandbar if he wished, but they were going back. + +Bennie arose unsteadily in the canoe and dug into his pocket, producing +a roll of gold coin. Two hundred and fifty dollars he promised them if +they would take him to the nearest tribe of Nascopees; five hundred if +they could find the Iron Serpent. + +"_Bien!_" exclaimed both Indians without a moment's hesitation, and the +canoe plunged forward up the Rassini. + +Once more a dreamlike succession of brilliant, frosty days; once more +the star-studded sky in which always the marionettes danced. And then at +last the great falls of the Rassini, beyond which no white man had gone. +They hid the canoe in the bushes and placed beneath it the iron stove +and half their supply of food. Then they plunged into the brush, +eastward. Bennie had never known such grueling work and heartbreaking +fatigue; and the clouds of flies pursued them venomously and with +unrelenting persistence. At first they had to cut their way through +acres of brush, and then the land rose and they saw before them miles of +swamp and barren land dotted with dwarf trees and lichen-grown rocks. +Here it was easier and they made better time; but the professor's legs +ached and his rifle wore a red bruise on his shoulder. And then after +five days of torment they came upon the Iron Rail. It ran in almost a +direct line from northwest to southwest, with hardly a waver, straight +over the barrens and through the forests of scrub, with a five-foot +clearing upon either side. At intervals it was elevated to a height of +eight or ten inches upon insulated iron braces. Both Marc and Edouard +stared at in wonder, while Bennie made them a little speech. + +It was, he said, a thing called a "monorail," made by a man who +possessed strange secrets concerning the earth and the properties of +matter. That man lived over the Height of Land toward Ungava. He was a +good man and would not harm other good men. But he was a great +magician--if you believed in magic. On the rail undoubtedly he ran +something called a gyroscopic engine, and carried his stores and +machinery into the wilderness. The Nascopees were not such fools after +all, for here was the something they feared to cross--the iron serpent +that bit and killed. Let them watch while he made it bite. He allowed +his rifle to fall against the rail, and instantly a shower of blue +sparks flashed from it as the current leaped into the earth. + +Bennie counted out twenty-five golden eagles and handed them to Edouard. +If they followed the rail to its source he would, he promised, on their +return to civilization give them as much again. Without more ado the +Indians lifted their packs and swung off to the northwest along the line +of the rail. The stock of Prof. Bennie Hooker had risen in their +estimation. On they ploughed across the barrens, through swamps, over +the quaking muskeg, into the patches of scrub growth where the short +branches slapped their faces, but always they kept in sight of the rail. + + * * * * * + +The extraordinary announcement, transmitted from various European news +agencies, that an attempt had been made by the general commanding the +First Artillery Division of the German Army of the Meuse to violate the +armistice, had caused a profound sensation, particularly as the attempt +to destroy Paris had been prevented only by the sudden appearance of the +same mysterious Flying Ring that had shortly before caused the +destruction of the Atlas Mountains and the flooding of the Sahara Desert +by the Mediterranean Sea. + +The advent of the Flying Ring on this second occasion had been noted by +several hundred thousand persons, both soldiers and non-combatants. At +about the hour of midnight, as if to observe whether the warring nations +intended sincerely to live up to their agreement and bring about an +actual cessation of hostilities, the Ring had appeared out of the north +and, floating through the sky, had followed the lines of the +belligerents from Brussels to Verdun and southward. The blinding yellow +light that it had projected toward the earth had roused the soldiers +sleeping in their intrenchments and caused great consternation all along +the line of fortifications, as it was universally supposed that the +director of its flight intended to annihilate the combined armies of +France, England, Germany, and Belgium. But the Ring had sailed +peacefully along, three thousand feet aloft, deluging the countryside +with its dazzling light, sending its beams into the casemates of the +huge fortresses of the Rhine and the outer line of the French +fortifications, searching the redoubts and trenches, but doing no harm +to the sleeping armies that lay beneath it; until at last the silence of +the night had been broken by the thunder of "Thanatos," and in the +twinkling of an eye the Lavender Ray had descended, to turn the village +of Champaubert into the smoking crater of a dying volcano. The entire +division of artillery had been annihilated, with the exception of a few +stragglers, and of the Relay Gun naught remained but a distorted puddle +of steel and iron. + +Long before the news of the horrible retribution visited by the master +of the Ring upon Treitschke, the major-general of artillery, and the +inventor, Von Heckmann, had reached the United States, Bill Hood, +sitting in the wireless receiving station of the Naval Observatory at +Georgetown, had received through the ether a message from his mysterious +correspondent in the north that sent him hurrying to the White House. +Pax had called the Naval Observatory and had transmitted the following +ultimatum, repeating it, as was his custom, three times: + + "_To the President of the United States and to All Mankind:_ + + "I have put the nations to the test and found them wanting. The + solemn treaty entered into by the ambassadors of the belligerent + nations at Washington has been violated. My attempt by harmless + means to compel the cessation of hostilities and the abolition of + war has failed. I cannot trust the nations of the earth. Their + selfishness, their bloodthirstiness, and greed, will inevitably + prevent their fulfilling their agreements with me or keeping the + terms of their treaties with one another, which they regard, as + they themselves declare, merely as 'scraps of paper.' The time has + come for me to compel peace. I am the dictator of human destiny and + my will is law. War shall cease. On the 10th day of September I + shall shift the axis of the earth until the North Pole shall be in + the region of Strassburg and the South Pole in New Zealand. The + habitable zone of the earth will be hereafter in South Africa, + South and Central America, and regions now unfrequented by man. The + nations must migrate and a new life in which war is unknown must + begin upon the globe. This is my last message to the human race. + + "PAX." + +The conference of ambassadors summoned by the President to the White +House that afternoon exhibited a character in striking contrast with the +first, at which Von Koenitz and the ambassadors from France, Russia, and +England had had their memorable disagreement. It was a serious, +apprehensive, and subdued group of gentlemen that gathered round the +great mahogany table in the Cabinet chamber to debate what course of +action the nations should pursue to avert the impending calamity to +mankind. For that Pax could shift the axis of the earth, or blow the +globe clean out of its orbit into space, if he chose to do so, no one +doubted any longer. + +And first it fell as the task of the ambassador representing the +Imperial German Commissioners to assure his distinguished colleagues +that his nation disavowed and denied all responsibility for the conduct +of General Treitschke in bombarding Paris after the hour set for the +armistice. It was unjust and contrary to the dictates of reason, he +argued, to hold the government of a nation comprising sixty-five +millions of human beings and five millions of armed men accountable for +the actions of a single individual. He spoke passionately, eloquently, +persuasively, and at the conclusion of his speech the ambassadors +present were forced to acknowledge that what he said was true, and to +accept without reservation his plausible assurances that the Imperial +German Commissioners had no thought but to cooperate with the other +governments in bringing about a lasting peace such as Pax demanded. + +But the immediate question was, had not the time for this gone by? Was +it not too late to convince the master of the Flying Ring that his +orders would be obeyed? Could anything be done to avert the calamity he +threatened to bring upon the earth--to prevent the conversion of Europe +into a barren waste of ice fields? For Pax had announced that he had +spoken for the last time and that the fate of Europe was sealed. All the +ambassadors agreed that a general European immigration was practically +impossible; and as a last resort it was finally decided to transmit to +Pax, through the Georgetown station, a wireless message signed by all +the ambassadors of the belligerent nations, solemnly agreeing within one +week to disband their armies and to destroy all their munitions and +implements of war. This message was delivered to Hood, with instructions +for its immediate delivery. All that afternoon and evening the operator +sat in the observatory, calling over and over again the three letters +that marked mankind's only communication with the controller of its +destiny: + + "PAX--PAX--PAX!" + +But no answer came. For long, weary hours Hood waited, his ears glued to +the receivers. An impenetrable silence surrounded the master of the +Ring. Pax had spoken. He would say no more. Late that night Hood +reluctantly returned to the White House and informed the President that +he was unable to deliver the message of the nations. + +And meantime Prof. Bennie Hooker, with Marc and Edouard, struggled +across the wilderness of Labrador, following the Iron Rail that led to +the hiding-place of the master of the world. + + * * * * * + +The terrible fate of the German expeditionary force is too well known to +require comment. As has been already told, the _Sea Fox_ had sailed from +Amsterdam twelve days after the conference in the War Office at Mainz +between General von Helmuth and Professor von Schwenitz. Once north of +the Orkneys it had encountered fair weather, and it had reached Hamilton +Inlet in ten days without mishap, and with the men and animals in the +best of condition. At Rigolet the men had disembarked and loaded their +howitzers, mules, and supplies upon the flat-bottomed barges brought +with them for that purpose. Thirty French and Indian guides had been +engaged, and five days later the expedition, towed by the powerful motor +launches, had started up the river toward the chain of lakes lying +northwest toward Ungava. Every one was in the best of spirits and +everything moved with customary German precision like clockwork. Nothing +had been forgotten, not even the pungent invention of a Berlin chemist +to discourage mosquitoes. Without labour, without anxiety, the fourteen +barges bored through the swift currents and at last reached a great lake +that lay like a silver mirror for miles about them. The moon rose and +turned the boats into weird shapes as they ploughed through the gray +mists--a strange and terrible sight for the Nascopees lurking in the +underbrush along the shore. And while the men smoked and sang "Die Wacht +am Rhein," listening to the trill of the ripples against the bows, the +foremost motorboat grounded. + +The momentum of the barge immediately following could not be checked, +and she in turn drove into what seemed to be a mud bank. At about the +same instant the other barges struck bottom. Intense excitement and +confusion prevailed among the members of the expedition, since they were +almost out of sight of land and the draft of the motorboats was only +nineteen inches. But no efforts could move the barges from where they +were. All night long the propellers churned the gleaming water of the +lake to foam, but without result. Each and every barge and boat was hard +and fast aground, and when the gray daylight came stealing across the +lake there was no lake to be seen, only a reeking marsh, covered for +miles with a welter of green slime and decaying vegetable matter across +which it would seem no human being or animal could flounder. As far as +the eye could reach lay only a blackish ooze. And with the sun came +millions of mosquitoes and flies, and drove the men and mules frantic +with their stings. + +Only one man, Ludwig Helmer, a gun driver from Potsdam, survived. Half +mad with the flies and nearly naked, he found his way somehow across the +quaking bog, after all his comrades had died of thirst, and reached a +tribe of Nascopees, who took him to the coast. A great explosion, they +told him, had torn the River Nascopee from its bed and diverted its +course. The lakes that it fed had all dried up. + + * * * * * + +Blinded by perspiration, sweltering under the heavy burden of their +outfit, goaded almost to frenzy by the black flies and mosquitoes, +Hooker and Marc and Edouard staggered through the brush, following the +monorail. They had already reached the summit of the Height of Land and +where now working down the northern slope in the direction of Ungava. +The land was barren beyond the imagination of the unimaginative Bennie. +Small dwarfed trees struggled for a footing amid the lichen-covered +outcroppings and sun-dried moss of the hollows. The slightest rise +showed mile upon mile of great waste undulating interminably in every +direction. The heat shimmering off the rocks was almost suffocating. At +noon on September 10th they threw themselves into the shade of a narrow +ledge, boiled some tea, and smoked their pipes, wildly fanning the air +to drive away the swarms of insects that attacked them. + +Hooker was half drunk from lack of sleep and water. Already once or +twice he had caught himself wandering when talking to Marc and Edouard. +The whole thing was like a horrible, disgusting nightmare. And then he +suddenly became aware that the two Indians were staring intently through +the clouds of mosquitoes over the tree tops to the eastward. Through the +sweat that trickled into his eyes he tried to make out what they could +see. But he could discern nothing except mosquitoes. And then he thought +he saw a mosquito larger than all the others. He waved at it, but it +remained where it was. A slight breeze momentarily wafted the swarm +away, and he still saw the big mosquito hovering over the horizon. Then +he heard Marc cry out: + +"_Quelque chose vol en l'air!_" + +He rubbed the moisture out of his eyes and stared at the mosquito, which +was growing bigger every minute. With the velocity of a projectile, this +monstrous insect, or whatever it was, came sweeping up behind them from +the Height of Land, soaring into the zenith in a great parabola, until +with a shiver of excitement Bennie recognized that it was the Flying +Ring. + +"It's him," he chattered emphatically, if ungrammatically. + +Marc and Edouard nodded. + +"_Oui, oui!_" they cried in unison. "_C'est celui que vous cherchez!_" + +"_Il retourne chez lui_," said Marc. + +And then Bennie, without offering any explanation, found himself dancing +up and down upon the rocks in the dizzying sun, waving his hat and +shouting to the Father of the Marionettes. What he shouted he never +knew. And Marc and Edouard both shouted, too. But the master of the Ring +heard them not, or if he heard he paid them no attention. Nearer and +nearer came the Ring, until Bennie could see the gleaming cylinder of +its great steel circle. At a distance of about two miles it swept +through the air over a low ridge, and settled toward the earth in the +direction of Ungava. + +"He only goes ten mile maybe," announced Marc confidently. "_Un petit +bout de chemin._ We get there to-night." + +On they struggled beside the Rail, but now hope ran high. Bennie sang +and whistled, unmindful of the mosquitoes and black flies that renewed +their attacks with unremitting ferocity. The sun lowered itself into the +pine trees, shooting dazzling shafts through the low branches, and then +sank in a welter of crimson-yellow light. The sky turned gray in the +east; faint stars twinkled through the quivering waves that still shook +from the overheated rocks. It turned cold and the mosquitoes departed. +Hugging the Rail, they staggered on, now over shaking muskeg, now +through thickets of tangled brush, now on great ledges of barren rock, +and then across caribou barrens knee-deep in dry and crackling moss. +Darkness fell and prudence dictated that they should make camp. But in +their excitement they trudged on, until presently a pale glow behind the +dwarfed trees showed that the moon was rising. They boiled the water, +made tea, and cooked some biscuits. Soon they could see to pursue their +way. + +"'Most there now," encouraged Marc. + +Presently, instead of descending, they found the land was rising again, +and forcing their way through the undergrowth they struggled up a rocky +hillside, perhaps three hundred feet in height. Marc was in the lead, +with Bennie a few feet behind him. As they reached the crest the Indian +turned and pointed to something in front of him that Bennie was unable +to distinguish. + +"_Nous sommes arrivees_," he announced. + +With his heart thumping from the exertion of the climb, Bennie crawled +up beside his guide and found himself confronted by a strong barbed-wire +entanglement affixed to iron stanchions firmly imbedded in the rocks. +They were on the top of a ridge that dropped away abruptly at their feet +into a valley, perhaps a mile in width, terminating on the other side in +perpendicular cliffs, estimated by Bennie to be about eight hundred or a +thousand feet in height. Although the entanglement was by no means +impassable, it was a distinct obstacle and one they preferred to tackle +by daylight. Moreover, it indicated that their company was undesired. +They were in the presence of an unknown quantity, the master of the +Flying Ring. Whether he was a malign or a benevolent influence, this +Father of the Marionettes, they could not tell. + +With his back propped against a small spruce Bennie focused his glasses +upon dim shapes barely discernible in the midst of the valley. He was +thrilled by a deep excitement, a strange fear. What would he see? What +mysteries would those vague forms disclose? The shadows cast by the +cliffs and a light mist gathering in the low ground made it difficult to +see; and then, even as he looked, the moon rose higher and shone through +something in the middle of the valley that looked like a tall, grisly +skeleton. It seemed to have legs and arms, an odd mushroom-shaped head, +and endless ribs. Below and at its feet were other and vaguer +shapes--flat domes or cupolas, bombproofs perhaps, buildings of some +sort--Pax's home beyond peradventure. + +As he looked through the glasses at the skeleton-like tower Bennie had +an extraordinary feeling of having seen it all before somewhere. As in a +long-forgotten dream he remembered Tesla's tower near Smithtown, on Long +Island. And this was Tesla's tower, naught else! It is a strange thing, +how at great crises of our lives come feelings of anticipatory +knowledge. There is, indeed, nothing new under the sun; else had Bennie +been more afraid. As it was, he saw only Tesla's Smithtown tower with +its head like a young mushroom. And at the same time there flashed into +his memory: "Childe Harold to the Dark Tower Came." Over and over he +repeated it mechanically, feeling that he might be one of those of whom +the poet had sung. Yet he had not read the lines for years: + + _Burningly it came on me all at once, + This was the place!... + What in the midst lay but the Tower itself?_ + +His eyes searched the shadows round the base of the tower, for his ears +had already caught a faint, almost inaudible throbbing that seemed to +grow from moment to moment. There certainly was a dull vibration in the +air, a vibration like the distant hum of machinery. Suddenly old Edouard +touched Bennie upon the shoulder. + +"_Regardez!_" he whispered. + +Some transformation was happening in the hood of the tower. From a black +opaque object it began to turn a dull red and to diffuse a subdued glow, +while the hum turned into a distinct whir. + +Bennie became almost hysterical with excitement. + +Soon the hood of the tower had turned white and the glow had increased +until the whole valley was lit up with a suffused and gentle light. The +Ring could be distinctly seen about half a mile away, resting upon a +huge circular support. + +"_C'est le feu!_" grunted Marc. "_C'est ainsi que l'on fait danser les +marionettes!_" + +There was no doubt that the hood of the tower was in fact white hot, for +the perpendicular cliffs of the mountain across the valley sharply +reflected the light that it disseminated. The humming whir of the great +alternator rose gradually into a scream like the outcry of some angry +thing. And then unexpectedly a shaft of pale lavender light shot out +from the glowing hood and lost itself in the blackness of the midnight +sky. Now appeared a wonderful and beautiful spectacle: immediately above +the point where the rays disappeared into the ether hundreds of points +of yellow fire suddenly sprang into being in the sky, darting hither and +thither like fireflies, some moving slowly and others with such speed +they appeared as even, luminous lines. + +"_Les marionettes! Les marionettes!_" Marc cried trembling. + +"Not at all! Not at all! They are meteorites!" answered Bennie, entirely +engrossed in the scientific phase of the matter and forgetting that he +did not speak the other's language. "Space is jammed full of meteoric +dust. The larger particles, which strike our atmosphere and which ignite +by friction, form shooting stars. The Ray--the Lavender Ray--reaching +out into the most distant regions of space meets them in countless +numbers and disintegrates them, surrounding them with glowing +atmospheres. By George, though, if he starts in playing the Ray upon +that cliff we've got to stand from under! Look here, boys," he shouted, +"stuff something in your ears." He seized his handkerchief, tore it +apart, and, making two plugs, thrust them into the openings of his ears +as far as the drums. The others in wonderment followed his example. + +"He's going to rock the earth!" cried Bennie Hooker. "He's going to rock +the earth again!" + +Slowly the Lavender Ray swung through the ether, followed by its +millions of meteorites, dipping downward toward the northern side of the +valley and sinking ever lower and lower toward the cliff. Bennie threw +himself flat on his stomach upon the ridge, pressing his hands to his +ears, and the others, feeling that something terrible was going to +happen, followed his example. Nearer and nearer toward the ridge dropped +the Ray. Bennie held his breath. Another instant and there came a +blinding splash of yellow light, a crash like thunder, and a roar that +seemed to tear the mountain from its base. The earth shook. Into the +zenith sprang a flame of incandescent vapour a mile in height. The +tumult increased. Vivid blue flashes of lightning shot out from the spot +upon which the Ray played. The air was filled with thunderings, and the +ground beneath them rose and fell and swung from side to side. Then came +a mighty wind, nay, a cyclone, and gravel and broken branches fell upon +them, and suffocating clouds of dust filled their eyes and shut out from +time to time what was occurring in the valley. The face of the cliff +glowed like the interior of a furnace, and the blazing yellow blast of +glowing helium shot over their heads and off into space, making the +night sky light as day. + +For a moment they all lay stunned and sightless. Then the discharge +appeared to diminish both in volume and in intensity. The air cleared +somewhat and the ground no longer trembled. The burst of flame slowly +subsided, like a fountain that is being gradually turned off. Either the +Ring man wasn't going to rock the earth or he had lost control of his +machinery. + +Something was clearly going wrong. Showers of sparks fell from the hood +and occasionally huge glowing masses of molten metal dropped from it. +And now the Lavender Ray began slowly to sweep down the face of the +cliff; and the yellow blast of helium gradually faded away until it was +scarcely visible. The roar of the alternator died down, first to a hum +and then to a purr. + +"Something's busted," thought Bennie, "and he's shut it off." + +The Ray had now reached the bottom of the cliff and was sweeping across +the ground toward the base of the tower, its path being marked by a +small travelling volcano that hurled its smoke and steam high into the +air. It was evident to Bennie that the hood of the tower was slowly +turning over, and that the now fast-fading Ray would presently play upon +its base and the adjacent cupola in which the master of the Ring was +probably attempting to control his recalcitrant machinery. + +And then Bennie lost consciousness. + + * * * * * + +A splash of rain. He awoke, and found himself lying by the barbed-wire +fence in the graying light of dawn. His muscles were stiff and sore, but +he felt a strange sense of exhilaration. A mist was driving across the +valley and enshrouding the scene of the night's debacle. Through the +rain gusts he could see, still standing, the wreck of the tower, with a +fragment of melted inductor drooping from its apex--and a long way off +the Ring. The base of the tower and its surroundings were lost in mist. +He crawled to his knees and looked about him for Marc and Edouard, but +they had disappeared. His field glasses lay beside him, and he picked +them up and raised himself to his feet. Like stout Cortés, silent upon +his peak in Darien, he surveyed the Pacific of his dreams. For the Ring +was still there! Pax might be annihilated, his machinery destroyed, but +the secret remained--and it was his, Bennie Hooker's, of Appian Way, +Cambridge, Massachusetts! In his excitement, in getting over the fence +he tore a jagged hole in what was left of his sporting suit, but in a +moment more he was scrambling down the ridge into the ravine. + +He found it no easy task to climb down the jagged face of the cliff, but +twenty minutes of stiff work landed him in the valley and within a +thousand yards of the stark remains of the tower. Between where he stood +and the devastation caused by the culminating explosion of the night +before, the surface of the earth showed the customary ledges of barren +rock, the scraggy scattering of firs, and stretches of moss with which +he had become so familiar. Behind him the monorail, springing into space +from the crest of the hill, ended in the dangling wreckage of a trestle +which evidently had terminated in a station, now vanished, near the +tower. From his point of observation little of the results of the +upheaval was noticeable except the débris, which lay in a film of +shattered rock and gravel over the surface of the ground, but as he ran +toward the tower the damage caused by the Ray quickly became apparent. + +At the distance of two hundred yards from the base he paused astounded. +Why anything of the tower remained at all was a mystery, explicable only +by reason of the skeleton-like character of its construction. All about +it the surface had been rent as by an earthquake, and save for a +fragment of the dome or bombproof all trace of buildings had +disappeared. A glistening lake of leperous-like molten lead lay in the +centre of the crater, strangely iridescent. A broad path of destruction, +fifty yards or so in width, led from the scene of the disruption to the +precipice against which the Ray had played. The face of the cliff itself +seemed covered with a white coating or powder which gave it a ghostly +sheen. Moreover, the rain had turned to snow and already the entire +aspect of the valley had changed. + +Bennie stood wonderingly on the edge of this inferno. He was cold, +famished, horror-stricken. Like a flash in a pan the mechanism which had +rocked the earth and dislocated its axis had blown out; and there was +now nothing left to tell the story, for its inventor had flashed out +with it into eternity. At his very feet a conscious human being, only +twelve short hours before, had by virtue of his stupendous brain been +able to generate and control a force capable of destroying the planet +itself, and now----! He was gone! It was all gone! Unless somewhere hard +by was hovering amid the whirling snowflakes that which might be his +soul. But Pax would send no more messages! Bennie's journey had gone for +naught. He had arrived just too late to talk it all over with his +fellow-scientist, and discuss those little improvements on Hiroshito's +theory. Pax was dead! + +He sat down wearily, noticing for the first time that his ears pained +him. In his depression and excitement he had totally forgotten the Ring. +He wondered how he was ever going to get back to Cambridge. And then as +he raised his hand to adjust his Glengarry he saw it awaiting +him--unscathed. Far to the westward it rested snugly in its gigantic +nest of crossbeams, like the head of some colossal decapitated Chinese +mandarin. With an involuntary shout he started running down the valley, +heedless of his steps. Nearer and higher loomed the steel trestlework +upon which rested the giant engine. Panting, he blindly stumbled on, +mindful only of the momentous fact that Pax's secret was not lost. + +Fifty feet above the ground, supported upon a cylindrical trestle of +steel girders, rested the body of the car, constructed of aluminum +plates in the form of an anchor ring some seventy-five feet in diameter, +while over the circular structure of the Ring itself rose a skeleton +tower like a tripod, carrying at its summit a huge metal device shaped +like a thimble, the open mouth of which pointed downward through the +open centre of the machine. Obviously this must be the tractor or +radiant engine. There, too, swung far out from the side of the ring on a +framework of steel, was the thermic inductor which had played the +disintegrating Ray upon the Atlas Mountains and the great cannon of Von +Heckmann. The whole affair resembled nothing which he had ever conceived +of either in the air, the earth, or the waters under the earth, the +bizarre invention of a superhuman mind. It seemed as firmly anchored and +as immovable as the Eiffel Tower, and yet Bennie knew that the thing +could lift itself into the air and sail off like a ball of thistledown +before a breeze. He knew that it could do it, for he had seen it with +his own eyes. + +A few steps more brought him into the centre of the circle of steel +girders which supported the landing stage. Here the surface of the earth +at his feet had been completely denuded and the underlying rock exposed, +evidently by some artificial action, the downward blast of gas from the +tractor. Even the rock itself had been seared by the discharge; little +furrows worn smooth as if by a mountain torrent radiating in all +directions from the central point. More than anything it reminded Bennie +of the surface of a meteorite, polished and scarred by its rush through +the atmosphere. He paused, filled with a kind of awe. The most wonderful +engine of all time waited his inspection. The great secret was his +alone. The inventor and his associates had been wiped out of existence +in a flash, and the Flying Ring was his by every right of treasure +trove. In the heart of the Labrador wilderness Prof. Benjamin Hooker of +Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave an exultant shout, threw off his coat, +and swarmed up the steel ladder leading to the landing stage. + +He had ascended about halfway when a voice echoed among the girders. A +red face was peering down at him over the edge of the platform. + +"Hello!" said the face. "I'm all right, I guess." + +Bennie gripped tight hold of the ladder, stiff with fear. He thought +first of jumping down, changed his mind, and, shutting his eyes, +continued automatically climbing up the ladder. + +Then a hand gripped him under the arm and gave him a lift on to the +level floor of the platform. He steadied himself and opened his eyes. +Before him stood a man in blue overalls, under whose forehead, burned +bright red by the Labrador sun, a pair of blue eyes looked out vaguely. +The man appeared to be waiting for the visitor to make the next move. +"Good morning," said Bennie, sparring for time. "Well"--he +hesitated--"where were you when it happened?" + +The man looked at him stupidly. "What?" he mumbled. "I--I don't seem to +remember. You see--I was in--the condenser room building up the +charge--for to-morrow--I mean to-day--sixty thousand volts at the +terminals, and the fluid clearing up. I guess I looked out of the window +a minute--to see--the fireworks--and then--somehow--I was out on the +platform." He shaded his eyes and looked off down the valley at the +half-shattered, wrecked tower. "The wind and the smoke!" he muttered. +"The wind and the smoke--and the dust in my eyes--and now it's all gone +to hell! But I guess everything's all right now, if you want to fly." He +touched his cap automatically. "We can start whenever you are ready, +sir. You see I thought you were gone, too! That would have been a mess! +I'm sure you can handle the balancer without Perkins. Poor old Perk! And +Hoskins--and the others. All gone, by God! All wiped out! Only me and +you left, sir!" He laughed hysterically. + +"Bats in his belfry!" thought Bennie. "Something hit him!" + +Slowly it came over him that the half-stunned creature thought that he, +Bennie Hooker, was Pax, the Master of the World! + +He took the fellow by the arm. "Come on inside," he said. A plan had +already formulated itself in his brain. Even as he was the man might be +able to go through his customary duties in handling the Ring. It was not +impossible. He had heard of such things, and the thought of the long +marches over the frozen barrens and the perilous canoe trip down the +coast, contrasted with a swift rush for an hour or two through the +sunlit air, gave the professor the courage which might not have availed +him otherwise. At the top of a short ladder a trapdoor opened inward, +and Bennie found himself in a small compartment scarcely large enough to +turn around in, from which a second door opened into the body of the +Ring proper. + +"It's all right--to-day," said the man hesitatingly. "I fixed--the +air-lock--yesterday, sir. The leak--was here--at the hinge--but it's +quite tight--now." He pointed at the door. + +"Good," remarked Bennie. "I'll look around and see how things are." + +This seemed to him to be eminently safe--and allowing for a program of +investigation absolutely essential at the moment. Once he could master +the secret of the Ring and be sure that the part of the fellow's brain +which controlled the performance of his customary duties had not been +injured by the shock of the night before, it might be possible to carry +out the daring project which had suggested itself. + +Passing through the inner door of the air-lock he entered the chart room +of the Ring, followed stumblingly by his companion. It was warm and +cozy; the first warmth Hooker had experienced for nearly a month. It +made him feel faint, and he dropped into an armchair and pulled off his +Glengarry. The survivor of the explosion, standing awkwardly at his +side, fumbled with his cap. Ever and anon he rubbed his head. + +Bennie sank back into the cushions and looked about him. On the opposite +wall hung a map of the world on Mercator's Projection, and from a spot +in Northern Labrador red lines radiated in all directions, which formed +great curved loops, returning to the starting-point. + +"The flights of the Ring," thought Bennie. "There's the one where they +busted the Atlas Mountains," following with his eyes the crimson thread +which ran diagonally across the Atlantic, traversed Spain and the +Mediterranean, and circling in a narrow loop over the coast of Northern +Africa turned back into its original track. Visions came to him of +guiding the car for an afternoon jaunt across the Sahara, the gloomy +forests of the Congo, into the Antarctic, and thence home in time for +afternoon tea, via the Easter Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska. But why stop +there? What was to prevent a trip to the moon? Or Mars? Or for that +matter into the unknown realms outside the solar system--the fourth +dimension, perhaps--or even the fifth dimension---- + +"Excuse me," said the machinist suddenly, "I just forgot--whether you +take--cigars or cigarettes. You see I only acted as--table +orderly--once--when Smith had that sprain." His hands moved uncertainly +on the shelves, beyond the map. The heart of Professor Hooker leaped. + +"Cigars!" he almost shouted. + +The man found a box of Havanas and struck a match. + +The bliss of it! And if there was tobacco there must be food and drink +as well. He began to feel strangely exhilarated. But how to handle the +man beside him? Pax would certainly never ask the questions that he +wished to ask. He smoked rapidly, thinking hard. Of course he might +pretend that he, too, had forgotten things. And at first this seemed to +be the only way out of the difficulty. Then he had an inspiration. + +"Look here," he remarked, rather severely. "Something's happened to you. +You say you've forgotten what occurred yesterday? How do I know but you +have forgotten everything you ever knew? You remember your name?" + +"My name, sir?" The man laughed in a foolish fashion. "Why--of course I +remember--my name. I wouldn't--be likely--to forget--that: +Atterbury--I'm Atterbury--electrician of the _Chimaera_." And he drew +himself up. + +"That's all right," said Bennie, "but what were we doing yesterday? What +is the very last thing that you can go back to?" + +The man wrinkled his forehead. "The last thing? Why, sir, you told us +you were going--to turn over the pole a bit--and freeze up Europe. I was +up here--loading the condenser--when you cut me off from the alternator. +I opened the switch--and put on the electrometer to see--if we had +enough. Next--everything was clouded, and I went--over to the window to +see--what was going on." + +"Yes," commented Bennie approvingly, "all right so far. What happened +then?" + +"Why, after that, sir, after that, there was the Ray of course, and +er--I don't seem to remember--oh, yes, a short circuit--and I ran--out +on the platform--forgot all about the danger! After that, everything's +confused. It's like a dream. Your coming up--the ladder--seemed--to wake +me up." The machinist smiled sheepishly. + +The plan was working well. Professor Hooker was learning things fast. + +"Do you think that the two of us can fly the _Chimaera_ south again?" he +asked, inspecting the map. + +"Why not?" answered Atterbury. "The balancer is working--better +now--and--doesn't take--much attention--and you can lay the course--and +manage--the landing. I was going to put a fresh uranium cylinder in the +tractor this morning--but I--forgot." + +"There you go, forgetting again!" growled Bennie, realizing that his +only excuse for asking questions hung on this fiction. And there were +many, many more questions that he must ask before he would be able to +fly. "You don't seem quite right in your coco this morning, Atterbury," +he said. "I think we'll look things over a bit--the condenser first." + +"Very well, sir." Atterbury turned and groped his way through a doorway, +and they passed first into what appeared to be a storage-battery room. +Huge glass tanks filled with amber-coloured fluid, in which numerous +parallel plates were supported, lined the walls from floor to ceiling. + +An ammeter on the wall caught Bennie's attention. "Weston Direct Reading +A. C. Ammeter," he read on the dial. Alternate current! What were they +doing with an alternating current in the storage-battery room? His eyes +followed the wires along the wall. Yes, they ran to the terminals of the +battery. It dawned upon him that there might be something here undreamed +of in electrical engineering--a storage battery for an alternating +current! + +The electrician closed a row of switches, brought the two polished brass +spheres of the discharger within striking distance, and instantly a +blinding current of sparks roared between the terminals. He had been +right. This battery not only was charged by an alternating current, but +delivered one of high potential. He peered into the cells, racking his +brain for an explanation. + +"Atterbury," said he meditatively, "did I ever tell you why they do +that?" + +"Yes," answered the man. "You--told me--once. The two metals--in the +electrolyte--come down--on the plates--in alternate films--as--the +current changes direction. But you never told me--what the electrolyte +was--I don't suppose--you--would be willing to now, would you?" + +"H'm," said Bennie, "some time, maybe." + +But this cue was all that he required. A clever scheme! Pax had formed +layers of molecular thickness of two different metals in alternation by +the to-and-fro swing of his charging current. When the battery +discharged the metals went into solution, each plate becoming +alternately positive and negative. He wondered what Pax had used for an +electrolyte that enabled him to get a metallic deposit at each +electrode. And he wondered also why the metals did not alloy. But it +would not do for him to linger too long over a mere detail of equipment. +And he turned away to continue his tour of inspection, a tour which +occupied most of the morning, and during which he found a well-stocked +gallery and made himself a cup of coffee.[5] + +[Footnote 5: He even climbed with Atterbury to the very summit of the +tractor, where he discovered that his original guess had been correct +and that the car rose from the earth rocket fashion, due to the back +pressure of the radiant discharge from a massive cylinder of uranium +contained in the tractor. Against this block played a disintegrating ray +from a small thermic inductor, the inner construction of which he was +not able to determine, although it was obviously different from his own, +and the coils were wound in a curious manner which he did not +understand. There might be something in Hiroshito's theory after all. +The cylinder of the tractor pointed directly downward so that the blast +was discharged through the very centre of the Ring, but it could be +swung through a small angle in any direction, and by means of this +slight deflection the horizontal motion of the machine secured. Perhaps +the most interesting feature of the mechanism was that the Ring appeared +to have automatic stability, for the angle of the direction in which the +tractor was pointed was controlled not only by a pair of gyroscopes +which kept the Ring on an even keel, but also by a manometric valve +causing it to fly at a fixed height above the earth's surface. Should it +start to rise, the diminished pressure of the atmosphere operating on +the valve swung the tractor more to one side, and the horizontal +acceleration was thus increased at the expense of the vertical.] + +But the more he learned about the mechanism of the Ring the greater +became his misgivings about undertaking the return journey alone with +Atterbury through the air. If they were to go, the start must be made +within a few days, for the condenser held its charge but a comparatively +short time, and its energy was necessary for starting the Ring. When +freshly charged it supplied current for the thermic inductor for nearly +three minutes, but the metallic films, deposited on the plates, +dissolved slowly in the fluid, and after three or four days there +remained only enough for a thirty-second run, hardly enough to lift the +Ring from the earth. Once in the air, the downward blast from the +tractor operated a turbine alternator mounted on a skeleton framework at +the centre of the Ring, and the current supplied by this machine enabled +the Ring to continue its flight indefinitely, or until the cylinder of +uranium was completely disintegrated. + +Yet to trek back over the route by which he had come appeared to be +equally impossible. There was little likelihood that the two Indians +would return; they were probably already thirty miles on their way back +to the coast. If only he could get word to Thornton or some of those +chaps at Washington they might send a relief expedition! But a ship +would be weeks in getting to the coast, and how could he live in the +meantime? There were provisions for only a few days in the Ring, and the +storehouse in the valley had been wiped out of existence. Only an +aeroplane could do the trick. And then he thought of Burke, his +classmate--Burke who had devoted his life to heavier-than-air machines, +and who, since his memorable flight across the Atlantic in the _Stormy +Petrol_, had been a national hero. Burke could reach him in ten hours, +but how could _he_ reach Burke? In the heart of the frozen wilderness of +Labrador he might as well be on another planet, as far as communication +with the civilized world was concerned. + +A burst of sunlight shot through the window and formed an oval patch on +the floor at his feet. The weather was clearing. He went out upon the +platform. Patches of blue sky appeared overhead. As he gazed +disconsolately across the valley toward the tower, his eye caught the +glisten of something high in the air. From the top of the wreckage five +thin shining lines ran parallel across the sky and disappeared in a +small cloud which hung low over the face of the cliff. + +"The antennæ!" exclaimed Bennie. "A wireless to Burke." Burke would +come; he knew Burke. A thousand miles overland was nothing to him. +Hadn't he wagered five thousand dollars at the club that he would fly to +the pole and bring back Peary's flag--with no takers? Why, Burke would +take him home with as little trouble as a taxicab. And then, aghast, he +remembered the complete destruction in the valley. The wireless plant +had gone with the rest. He ran back into the chart room and called +Atterbury. + +"Can we get off a message to Washington?" he demanded. "The wires are +still up, and we have the condenser." + +"We might, sir, if it's not--a long one, though you've always said there +was danger in running the engine with the car bolted down. We did it the +time the big machine burnt out a coil. I can throw--a wire--over the +antennæ with a rocket--and join up--with the turbine machine. It will +increase--our wave length, but they ought to pick us up." + +"We'll try it, anyway," announced Bennie. + +He inspected the chart and measured the distance in an airline from +Boston to the point where the red lines converged. It was a trifle less +than the distance between Boston and Chicago. Burke had done that in +nine hours on the trial trip of his trans-Atlantic monoplane. If the +machine was in order and Burke started in the morning he would be with +them by sunset, if he didn't get lost. But Bennie knew that Burke could +drive his machine by dead reckoning and strike within a few leagues of a +target a thousand miles away. + +A muffled roar outside interrupted his musings, and running out on the +platform again he found Atterbury attaching the cord of the aluminum +ribbon, which the rocket had carried up and over the antennæ, to one of +the brush bars of the alternator. + +"Nearly ready, sir," he said. "We'd best--lock the storm bolts--to hold +her down--in case we have--to crowd on the power. We've got to +use--pretty near the full lift--to get the alternator up--to the proper +speed." + +A chill ran down Bennie's spine. They were going to start the engine! In +a moment he would be within twenty feet of a blast of disintegration +products capable of lifting the whole machine into the air, and it was +to be started at his command, after he had worked and pottered for two +years with a thermic inductor the size of a thimble! He felt as he used +to feel before taking a high dive, or as he imagined a soldier feels +when about to go under fire for the first time. How would it turn out? +Was he taking too much responsibility, and was Atterbury counting on him +for the management of details? He felt singularly helpless as he +reëntered the chart room to compose his message. + +He turned on the electric lamp which hung over the desk, for in the +fast-gathering dusk the interior of the Ring was in almost total +darkness. How should his message read? It must be brief: it must tell +the story, and, above all, it must be compelling. + +He was joined by the electrician. + +"I think--we are all--ready now," stammered the latter. "What will you +send, sir?" + +Bennie handed him a scrap of yellow paper, and Atterbury put on a pair +of dark amber glasses, to protect his eyes from the light of the spark. + + "_Thornton, Naval Observatory, Washington:_ + + "Stranded fifty-four thirty-eight north, seventy-four eighteen + west. Have the Ring machine. Ask Burke come immediately. Life and + death matter. + + "B. HOOKER." + +Atterbury read the message and then gazed blankly at Hooker. + +"I--don't--understand," he said. + +"Never mind, send it. I'll explain later." Together they went into the +condenser room. + +Atterbury mechanically pushed the brass balls in contact, shoved a +bundle of iron wires halfway through the core of a great coil, and +closed a switch. A humming sound filled the air, and a few seconds later +a glow of yellow light came in through the window. A cone of luminous +vapour was shooting downward through the centre of the Ring from the +tractor. At first it was soft and nebulous, but it increased rapidly in +brilliancy, and a dull roar, like that of a waterfall, added itself to +the hum of the alternating current in the wires. And now a third sound +came to his ears, the note of the turbine, low at first, but gradually +rising like the scream of a siren, and the floor of the Ring beneath his +feet throbbed with the vibration. + +Bennie forgot the dynamometer, forgot his message to Burke, was +conscious only that he had wakened a sleeping volcano. Then came the +crack of the sparks, and the room seemed filled with the glare of the +blue lightning, for Atterbury, with his telephones at his ears, staring +through his yellow glasses, was sending out the call for the Naval +Observatory. + +"NAA--NAA--P--A--X." + +Over and over again he sent the call, while in the meantime the +condenser built up its charge from the overflow of current from the +turbine generator. Then the electrician opened a switch, and the roar +outside diminished and finally ceased. + +"We can't listen--with the tractor running," he fretted. "The +static--from the discharge--would tear--our detector--to pieces." He +threw in the receiving instrument. For a few moments the telephones +spoke only the whisperings of the arctic aurora, and then suddenly the +faint cry of the answering spark was heard. Bennie watched the words as +the electrician's pencil scrawled along on the paper. + + "Waiting for you. Why don't you send? N.A.A." + +"They must have--called us before--while the discharge--was running +down," muttered Atterbury. "I think we can send--with the +condenser--now." + +He picked up the scrap of yellow paper, read it over, and threw out into +space the message which he did not understand. + +"O. K. Wait. Thornton," came in reply. + +Two hours later came a second message: + + "P--A--X. Burke starts at daybreak. Expects reach you by nine P. M. + Asks you to show large beacon fire if possible. + + "THORNTON, N. A. A." + +"Hurrah!" cried Bennie. "Good for Burke! Atterbury, we're saved--saved, +do you hear! Go to bed now and don't ask any questions. And say, before +you go see if you can find me a glass of brandy." + + * * * * * + +It was decided that Burke must land on the plateau above the cliff, and +here the material for the fire was collected. There was little enough of +it and it was hard work carrying the oil up the steep trail. At times +Bennie was almost in despair. + +"It won't burn half an hour," said he, surveying the pile. "And we ought +to be able to keep it going all night. There's plenty of stuff in the +valley, but we can't have him come down there, with the tower, the +antennæ, and all the rest of the mess." + +"We might--show him--the big Ray," ventured Atterbury. "The thing--can +be pointed up--and I can--keep the turbine running. You can start--the +fire--as soon as you--hear his motors--and I'll shut down--as soon as I +see your fire." + +"Good idea!" agreed Bennie. "Only don't run continuously. Show the Ray +for a minute every quarter of an hour, and on no account start up after +you see the fire. If he thought the vertical beam was a searchlight and +flew through it----" Bennie shuddered at the thought of Burke driving +his aeroplane through the Ray that had shattered the Atlas Mountains. + +So it was arranged. Half an hour after sunset Atterbury shut himself up +in the Ring, and while Bennie climbed the trail leading to his post on +the plateau, he heard the creaking of the great inductor as it slowly +turned on its trunions. + +It was pitch dark by the time he reached the pitifully small pile of +brush which they had collected, and he poured some of the oil over it +and sat down, drawing a blanket around his shoulders. He felt very much +alone. Suppose the inductor failed to work? Suppose Atterbury turned the +Ray on him? Suppose.... But his musings were shattered by a noise from +the valley, a sound like that of escaping steam, and a moment later the +Lavender Ray shot up toward the zenith. Bennie lay on his back and +watched it, mindful of the night before the last when he had watched the +Ray from the tower descending upon the cliff. He wondered if he should +see any meteorites kindle in its path, but nothing appeared and the Ray +died down, leaving everything in darkness again. Fifteen minutes passed +and again the ghostly beam shot up into the night sky. Bennie looked at +his watch. It was nearly half-past eight. The cold made him sleepy. He +drew the blanket about him.... + +Two hours later through his half-dreams he caught the faint sound for +which he had been listening. At first he was not sure. It might be the +turbine alternator of the Ring running by its own inertia for some time +after the discharge had ceased. But no, it was growing louder +momentarily, and appeared to come from high up in the air. Now it died +away to nothingness, and now it swelled in volume, and again died away. +But at each subsequent recurrence it was louder than before. There was +no longer any doubt. Burke was coming! It was time to start the brush +pile. He lit match after match, only for the wind to blow them out. Yet +all the time the machine in the air was coming nearer, the roar of its +twin engines beating on the stillness of the Labrador night. In despair +Bennie threw himself flat on his face by the brush pile and made a tent +of the blanket, under which he at last succeeded in starting a blaze +among the oil-soaked twigs. Then he pushed the half-empty keg into the +fire, arose and stared up at the sky. + +The machine was somewhere directly above him--just where he could not +say. Presently the motors stopped. He shouted feebly, running up and +down with his eyes turned skyward, and several times nearly fell into +the fire. He wondered why it didn't appear. It seemed hours since the +motors stopped! Then unexpectedly against the black background of the +sky the great wings of the machine appeared, illuminated on their +underside by the light of the fire. Silently it swung around on its +descending spiral, instantly to be swallowed up in the darkness again, a +moment later reappearing from the opposite direction, this time low down +and headed straight for him. He jumped hastily to one side and fell +flat. The machine grounded, rose once or twice as it ran along the +ground, and came to a stop twenty yards from the fire. A man climbed +out, slowly removed his goggles, and shook himself. Bennie scrambled to +his feet and ran forward waving his hat. + +"Well, Hooker!" remarked the man. "What th' hell are you doing _here_? +You sure have some searchlight!" + + * * * * * + +How Hooker and Burke, under the guidance of Atterbury, who gradually +regained his normal mental status, explored and charted the valley of +the Ring is strictly no part of this tale which deals solely with the +end of War upon the Earth. But next day, after several hours of +excavation among the débris of the smelter, where Pax had extracted his +uranium from the pitch blend mined at the cliff, they uncovered eight +cylinders of the precious metal weighing about one hundred pounds +apiece--the fuel of the Flying Ring. Now they were safe. Nay, more: +universal space was theirs to traffic in. + +Curious as to the reason why Pax had isolated himself in this frozen +wilderness, they next examined the high cliffs which shut in the valley +on the west and against the almost perpendicular walls of which he had +played the Lavender Ray. These cliffs proved, as Bennie had already +suspected, to be a gigantic outcrop of pitchblende or black oxide of +uranium. He estimated that nature had stored more uranium in but one of +the abutments of this cliff than in all the known mines of the entire +world. This radioactive mountain was the fulcrum by which this modern +Archimedes had moved the earth. The vast amount of matter disintegrated +by the Ray and thrown off into space with a velocity a thousandfold +greater than the blast of a siege gun produced a back pressure or recoil +against the face of the cliff, which thus became the "thrust block" of +the force which had slowed down the period of the earth's rotation. + + * * * * * + +The day of the start dawned with a blazing sun. From the landing stage +of the Ring Bennie could see stretching away to the east, west, and +south, the interminable plains, dotted with firs, which had formed the +natural barrier to the previous discovery of Pax's secret. Overhead the +dome of the sky fitted the horizon like an enormous shell--a shell +which, with a thrill, he realized that he could crack and escape from, +like a fledgling ready for its first flight. And yet in this moment of +triumph little Bennie Hooker felt the qualm which must inevitably come +to those who take their lives in their hands. An hour and he would be +either soaring Phoebus-like toward the south, or lying crushed and +mangled within a tangled mass of wreckage. Even here in this desolate +waste life seemed sweet, and he had much, so much to do. Wasn't it, +after all, a crazy thing to try to navigate the complicated mechanism +back to civilization? Yet something told him that unless he put his fate +to the test now he would never return. He had the utmost confidence in +Burke--he might never be able to secure his services again--no, it was +now or never. He entered the air-lock, closing and bolting the door, and +passed on into the chart room. + +At all events, he thought, they were no worse off than Pax when he had +made his first trial flight, and they were working with a proven +machine, tuned to its fullest efficiency, and one which apparently +possessed automatic stability. Atterbury had gone to the condenser room +and was waiting for the order to start, while Burke was making the final +adjustment of the gyroscopes which would put the Ring on its +predetermined course. He came through the door and joined Bennie. + +"Hooker," he said, "we're sure going to have some experience. If I can +keep her from turning over, I think I can manage her. The trouble will +come when we slant the tractor. I'm not sure how much depends on the +atmospheric valve, and how much on me. Things may happen quickly. If we +turn over we're done for." + +He held out his hand to Bennie, who gripped it tremulously. + +"Well," remarked the aviator, tossing away his cigarette, "we might as +well die now as any time!" + +He walked swiftly over to the speaking-tube which communicated with the +condenser room and blew sharply into it. + +"Let her go, _Gallagher_!" he directed. + +"My God!" ejaculated Bennie. "Wait a second, can't you?" + +But it was too late. He grabbed the rail, trembling. A humming sound +filled the air, and the gyroscopes slowly began to revolve. He looked up +through the window at the tractor, from which shot streaks of pale +vapour with a noise like escaping steam. Somehow it seemed alive. + +The Ring was throbbing as if it, too, was impregnated with life. The +discharge of the tractor had risen to a muffled roar. Shaking all over, +Bennie crossed to the inside window and looked across the inner space of +the Ring. As yet the yellow glow of the discharge was scarcely visible, +but the steel sides of the Ring danced and quivered, undulating in +waves, and, as the intensity of the blast increased and the turbine +commenced to revolve, everything outside went suddenly blurred and +indistinct. + +Dropping to his knees, Bennie looked down through the observation window +in the floor. A blinding cloud of yellow dust was driving out and away +from the base of the landing stage in the form of a gigantic ring. The +earth at their feet was hidden in whirls of vapour; and ripples of light +and shade chased each other outward in all directions, like shadows on +the bottom of a sandy pond rippled by a breeze. It made him dizzy to +look down there, and he arose from the window. Burke stood grimly at the +control, unmindful of his associate. Bennie crossed to the other side, +and as he passed the gyroscopes, the air from the swiftly spinning discs +blew back his hair. He could see nothing through the tumult that roared +down through the centre of the Ring, like a Niagara of hot steam shot +through with a pale yellow phosphorescent light. The floor quivered +under his feet, and ominous creaking and snapping sounds reverberated +through the outer shell, as the steel girders of the landing stage were +gradually relieved of its weight. Just as it seemed to him that +everything was going to pieces, suddenly there was silence, save for the +purr of the machinery, and Bennie felt his knees sink under him. + +"We're off!" cried Burke. "Watch out!" + +The floor swayed as the Ring, lifted by the tractor, swung to and fro +like a pendulum. Bennie threw himself upon his stomach. The earth was +dropping away from them like a stone. He felt a sickening sensation. + +"Two thousand feet already," gasped Burke. "The atmospheric valve is set +for five thousand. I'll make it ten! It will give us more room to +recover in--if anything--goes wrong!" + +He gave the knob another half turn and laid his hand lightly on the +lever which controlled the movements of the tractor. Bennie, flattened +against the window, gazed below. The great dust ring showed indistinctly +through a blue haze no longer directly beneath them, but a quarter of a +mile to the north. Evidently they were not rising vertically. + +The valley of the Ring looked like a black crack in a greenish-gray +desert of rock and moss, the landing stage like a tiny bird's nest. The +floor of the car moved slightly from side to side. Burke's face had gone +gray, and he crouched unsteadily, one hand gripping a steel bracket on +the wall. + +"My Lord!" he mumbled with dry lips. "My Lord!" + +Bennie, momentarily expecting annihilation, crawled on all fours to +Burke's side. + +The needle of the manometer indicated nine thousand five hundred feet, +and was rapidly nearing the next division. Suddenly Burke felt the lever +move slowly under his hand as though operated by some outside +intelligence, and at the same moment the axis of one gyroscope swung +slowly in a horizontal plane through an angle of nearly ninety degrees, +while that of the other dipped slightly from the vertical. Both men had +a ghastly feeling that the ghost of Pax had somehow returned and assumed +control of the car. Bennie rotated the map under the gyroscope until the +fine black line on the dial again lay across their destination. Then he +crept back to his window again. The earth, far below and dimly visible, +was sliding slowly northward, and the dust ring which marked their +starting-point now lay as a flattened ellipse on the distant horizon. +Beneath and behind them in their flight trailed a thin streak of pale +bluish fog--the wake of the Flying Ring. + +They were now searing the atmosphere at a height of nearly two miles, +and the car was flying on a firm and even keel. There was no sound save +the dull roar of the tractor and a slight humming from the vibration of +the light steel cables. Bennie no longer felt any disagreeable +sensation. A strange detachment possessed him. Dark forests, lakes, and +a mighty river appeared to the south--the Moisie--and they followed it +as a fishhawk might have done, until the wilderness broke away before +them and they saw the broad reach of the St. Lawrence streaked with the +smoke of ocean liners. + +And then he lost control of himself for the first time and sobbed like a +woman--not from fear, nor weariness, nor excitement, but for joy--the +joy of the true scientist who has sought the truth and found it, has +achieved that for mankind which but for him it would have lacked, +perchance, forever. And he looked up at Burke and smiled. + +The latter nodded. + +"Yes," he remarked prosaically, "this is sure a little bit of all right! +All to the good!" + + + + +EPILOGUE + + +Meanwhile, during the weeks that Hooker had been engaged in finding the +valley of the Ring, unbelievable things had happened in world politics. +In spite of the fact that Pax, having decreed the shifting of the Pole +and the transformation of Central Europe into the Arctic zone, had +refused further communication with mankind, all the nations--and none +more zealously than the German Republic--had proceeded immediately to +withdraw their armies within their own borders, and under the personal +supervision of a General Commission to destroy all their armaments and +munitions of war. The lyddite bombs, manufactured in vast quantities by +the Krupps for the Relay Gun and all other high explosives, were used to +demolish the fortresses upon every frontier of Europe. The contents of +every arsenal was loaded upon barges and sunk in mid-Atlantic. And every +form of military organization, rank, service, and even uniform, was +abolished throughout the world. + +A coalition of nations was formed under a single general government, +known as the United States of Europe, which in coöperation with the +United States of North and South America, of Asia, and of Africa, +arranged for an annual world congress at The Hague, and which enforced +its decrees by means of an International Police. In effect all the +inhabitants of the globe came under a single control, as far as language +and geographical boundaries would permit. Each state enforced local +laws, but all were obedient to the higher law--the Law of +Humanity--which was uniform through the earth. If an individual offended +against the law of one nation, he was held to have offended against all, +and was dealt with as such. The international police needed no treaties +of extradition. The New York embezzler who fled to Nairobi was sent back +as a matter of course without delay. + +Any man was free to go and live where he chose, to manufacture, buy, and +sell as he saw fit. And, because the fear and shadow of war were +removed, the nations grew rich beyond the imagination of men; great +hospitals and research laboratories, universities, schools, and +kindergartens, opera houses, theatres, and gardens of every sort sprang +up everywhere, paid for no one quite knew how. The nations ceased to +build dreadnoughts, and instead used the money to send great troops of +children with the teachers travelling over the world. It was against the +law to own or manufacture any weapon that could be used to take human +life. And because the nations had nothing to fear from one another, and +because there were no scheming diplomatists and bureaucrats to make a +living out of imaginary antagonisms, people forgot that they were French +or German or Russian or English, just as the people of the United States +of America had long before practically disregarded the fact that they +came from Ohio or Oregon or Connecticut or Nevada. Russians with weak +throats went to live in Italy as a matter of course, and Spaniards who +liked German cooking settled in Münich. + +All this, of course, did not happen at once, but came about quite +naturally after the abolition of war. And after it had been done, +everybody wondered why it had not been done ten centuries before; and +people became so interested in destroying all the relics of that +despicable employment, warfare, that they almost forgot that the Man Who +Rocked the Earth had threatened that he would shift the axis of the +globe. So that when the day fixed by him came and everything remained +just as it always had been--and everybody still wore linen-mesh +underwear in Strassburg and flannels in Archangel--nobody thought very +much about it, or commented on the fact that the Flying Ring was no +longer to be seen. And the only real difference was that you could take +a P. & O. steamer at Marseilles and buy a through ticket to Tasili +Ahaggar--if you wanted to go there--and that the shores of the Sahara +became the Riviera of the world, crowded with health resorts and +watering-places--so that Pax had not lived in vain, nor Thornton, nor +Bill Hood, nor Bennie Hooker, nor any of them. + +The whole thing is a matter of record, as it should be. The +deliberations of Conference No. 2 broke up in a hubbub, just as Von +Helmuth and Von Koenitz had intended, and the transcripts of their +discussions proved to be not of the slightest scientific value. But in +the files of the old War Department--now called the Department for the +Alleviation of Poverty and Human Suffering--can be read the messages +interchanged between The Dictator of Human Destiny and the President of +the United States, together with all the reports and observations +relating thereto, including Professor Hooker's Report to the Smithsonian +Institute of his journey to the valley of the Ring and what he found +there. Only the secret of the Ring--of thermic induction and atomic +disintegration--in short, of the Lavender Ray, is his by right of +discovery, or treasure trove, or what you will, and so is his patent on +Hooker's Space-Navigating Car, in which he afterward explored the solar +system and the uttermost regions of the sidereal ether. But that shall +be told hereafter. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man Who Rocked the Earth, by +Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH *** + +***** This file should be named 19174-8.txt or 19174-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/7/19174/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Man Who Rocked the Earth + +Author: Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +Release Date: September 4, 2006 [EBook #19174] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + +<h1><i>The</i> MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH</h1> + +<h2>By ARTHUR TRAIN AND ROBERT WILLIAMS WOOD</h2> + +<h4>Reprint Edition 1974 by Arno Press Inc.<br /> +A New York Times Company<br /> +New York—1975</h4> + +<h4>SCIENCE FICTION ADVISORY EDITORS<br /> +<i>R. Reginald</i><br /> +<i>Douglas Menville</i></h4> + +<h4>Copyright © 1915 by Doubleday, Page & Company<br /> +<i>All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign +languages, including the Scandinavian</i></h4> + +<h4>Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Robert W. Wood</h4> + +<h4>Reprinted from a copy in The Library of the University of California, Riverside</h4> + +<p>Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data<br /> +Train, Arthur Cheney, 1875-1945.<br /> +The man who rocked the earth.<br /> +(Science fiction)<br /> +Reprint of the ed. published by Doubleday, Page,<br /> +Garden City, N. Y.<br /> +I. Wood, Robert Williams, 1868-1955, joint author.<br /> +II. Title. III. Series.<br /> +PZ3.T682Mak6 [PS3539.R23] 813'.5'2 74-16523<br /> +ISBN 0-405-06315-6</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH</h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>"I thought, too, of the first and most significant realization +which the reading of astronomy imposes: that of the exceeding +delicacy of the world's position; how, indeed, we are dependent +for life, and all that now is, upon the small matter of the tilt +of the poles; and that we, as men, are products, as it were, not +only of earth's precarious position, but of her more precarious +tilt."</i>—<span class="smcap">W. L. Comfort, Nov., 1914</span></p></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/front.jpg"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt=""/></a> +</div> +<h4>INSTANTLY THE EARTH BLEW UP LIKE A CANNON—UP INTO THE +AIR, A THOUSAND MILES UP</h4> +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<h4><a href="#PROLOGUE">PROLOGUE</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#I">I</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#II">II</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#III">III</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#IV">IV</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#V">V</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#VI">VI</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#VII">VII</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#IX">IX</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#X">X</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#XI">XI</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#XII">XII</a></h4> +<h4><a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a></h4> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PROLOGUE" id="PROLOGUE"></a>PROLOGUE</h2> + + +<p>By July 1, 1916, the war had involved every civilized nation upon the +globe except the United States of North and of South America, which had +up to that time succeeded in maintaining their neutrality. Belgium, +Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Austria Hungary, Lombardy, and +Servia, had been devastated. Five million adult male human beings had +been exterminated by the machines of war, by disease, and by famine. Ten +million had been crippled or invalided. Fifteen million women and +children had been rendered widows or orphans. Industry there was none. +No crops were harvested or sown. The ocean was devoid of sails. +Throughout European Christendom women had taken the place of men as +field hands, labourers, mechanics, merchants, and manufacturers. The +amalgamated debt of the involved nations, amounting to more than +$100,000,000,000, had bankrupted the world. Yet the starving armies +continued to slaughter one another.</p> + +<p>Siberia was a vast charnel-house of Tartars, Chinese, and Russians. +Northern Africa was a holocaust. Within sixty miles of Paris lay an army +of two million Germans, while three million Russians had invested +Berlin. In Belgium an English army of eight hundred and fifty thousand +men faced an equal force of Prussians and Austrians, neither daring to +take the offensive.</p> + +<p>The inventive genius of mankind, stimulated by the exigencies of war, +had produced a multitude of death-dealing mechanisms, most of which had +in turn been rendered ineffective by some counter-invention of another +nation. Three of these products of the human brain, however, remained +unneutralized and in large part accounted for the impasse at which the +hostile armies found themselves. One of these had revolutionized warfare +in the field, and the other two had destroyed those two most important +factors of the preliminary campaign—the aeroplane and the submarine. +The German dirigibles had all been annihilated within the first ten +months of the war in their great cross-channel raid by Pathé contact +bombs trailed at the ends of wires by high-flying French planes. This, +of course, had from the beginning been confidently predicted by the +French War Department. But by November, 1915, both the allied and the +German aerial fleets had been wiped from the clouds by Federston's +vortex guns, which by projecting a whirling ring of air to a height of +over five thousand feet crumpled the craft in mid-sky like so many +butterflies in a simoon.</p> + +<p>The second of these momentous inventions was Captain Barlow's device for +destroying the periscopes of submarines, thus rendering them blind and +helpless. Once they were forced to the surface such craft were easily +destroyed by gun fire or driven to a sullen refuge in protecting +harbours.</p> + +<p>The third, and perhaps the most vital, invention was Dufay's +nitrogen-iodide pellets, which when sown by pneumatic guns upon the +slopes of a battlefield, the ground outside intrenchments, or round the +glacis of a fortification made approach by an attacking army impossible +and the position impregnable. These pellets, only the size of No. 4 bird +shot and harmless out of contact with air, became highly explosive two +minutes after they had been scattered broadcast upon the soil, and any +friction would discharge them with sufficient force to fracture or +dislocate the bones of the human foot or to put out of service the leg +of a horse. The victim attempting to drag himself away inevitably +sustained further and more serious injuries, and no aid could be given +to the injured, as it was impossible to reach them. A field well planted +with such pellets was an impassable barrier to either infantry or +cavalry, and thus any attack upon a fortified position was doomed to +failure. By surprise alone could a general expect to achieve a victory. +Offensive warfare had come almost to a standstill.</p> + +<p>Germany had seized Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. Italy had annexed +Dalmatia and the Trentino; and a new Slav republic had arisen out of +what had been Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Roumania, +Montenegro, Albania, and Bulgaria. Turkey had vanished from the map of +Europe; while the United States of South America, composed of the +Spanish-speaking South American Republics, had been formed. The +mortality continued at an average of two thousand a day, of which 75 per +cent. was due to starvation and the plague. Maritime commerce had ceased +entirely, and in consequence of this the merchant ships of all nations +rotted at the docks.</p> + +<p>The Emperor of Germany, and the kings of England and of Italy, had all +voluntarily abdicated in favour of a republican form of government. +Europe and Asia had run amuck, hysterical with fear and blood. As well +try to pacify a pack of mad and fighting dogs as these frenzied myriads +with their half-crazed generals. They lay, these armies, across the fair +bosom of the earth like dying monsters, crimson in their own blood, yet +still able to writhe upward and deal death to any other that might +approach. They were at a deadlock, yet each feared to make the first +overtures for peace. There was, in actuality, no longer even an English +or a German nation. It was an orgy of homicide, in which the best of +mankind were wantonly destroyed, leaving only the puny, the +feeble-minded, the deformed, and the ineffectual to perpetuate the race.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2> + + +<p>It was three minutes past three postmeridian in the operating room of +the new Wireless Station recently installed at the United States Naval +Observatory at Georgetown. Bill Hood, the afternoon operator, was +sitting in his shirt sleeves with his receivers at his ears, smoking a +corncob pipe and awaiting a call from the flagship <i>Lincoln</i> of the +North Atlantic Patrol with which, somewhere just off Hatteras, he had +been in communication a few moments before. The air was quiet.</p> + +<p>Hood was a fat man, and so of course good-natured; but he was serious +about his work and hated all interfering amateurs. Of late these +wireless pests had become particularly obnoxious, as practically +everything was sent out in code and they had nothing with which to +occupy themselves. But it was a hot day and none of them seemed to be at +work. On one side of his desk a tall thermometer indicated that the +temperature of the room was 91 degrees Fahrenheit; on the other a big +clock, connected with some extraneous mechanism by a complicated system +of brass rods and wires, ticked off the minutes and seconds with a +peculiar metallic self-consciousness, as if aware of its own importance +in being the official timepiece, as far as there was an official +timepiece, for the entire United States of America.</p> + +<p>Hood from time to time tested his converters and detector, and then +resumed his non-official study of the adventures of a great detective +who pursued the baffling criminal by the aid of all the latest +scientific discoveries. Hood thought it was good stuff, although at the +same time he knew, of course, that it was rot. He was a practical man of +little imagination, and, though the detective did not interest him +particularly, he liked the scientific part of the stories. He was +thrifty, of Scotch-Irish descent, and at two minutes past three had +never had an adventure in his life. At three minutes past three he began +his career as one of the celebrities of the world.</p> + +<p>As the minute hand of the official clock dropped into its slot somebody +called the Naval Observatory. The call was so faint as to be barely +audible, in spite of the fact that Hood's instrument was tuned for a +three-thousand-metre wave. Supposing quite naturally that the person +calling had a shorter wave, he gradually cut out the inductance of his +receiver; but the sound faded out entirely, and he returned to his +original inductance and shunted in his condenser, upon which the call +immediately increased in volume. Evidently the other chap was using a +big wave, bigger than Georgetown.</p> + +<p>Hood puckered his brows and looked about him. Lying on a shelf above his +instrument was one of the new ballast coils that Henderson had used with +the long waves from lightning flashes, and he leaned over and connected +the heavy spiral of closely wound wire, throwing it into his circuit. +Instantly the telephones spoke so loud that he could hear the shrill cry +of the spark even from where the receivers lay beside him on the table. +Quickly fastening them to his ears he listened. The sound was clear, +sharp, and metallic, and vastly higher in pitch than a ship's call. It +couldn't be the <i>Lincoln</i>.</p> + +<p>"By gum!" muttered Hood. "That fellow must have a twelve-thousand-metre +wave length with fifty kilowatts behind it, sure! There ain't another +station in the world but this can pick him up!"</p> + +<p>"NAA—NAA—NAA," came the call.</p> + +<p>Throwing in his rheostat he sent an "O.K" in reply, and waited +expectantly, pencil in hand. A moment more and he dropped his pencil in +disgust.</p> + +<p>"Just another bug!" he remarked aloud to the thermometer. "Ought to be +poisoned! What a whale of a wave length, though!"</p> + +<p>For several minutes he listened intently, for the amateur was sending +insistently, repeating everything twice as if he meant business.</p> + +<p>"He's a jolly joker all right," muttered Hood, this time to the clock. +"Must be pretty hard up for something to do!"</p> + +<p>Then he laughed out loud and took up the pencil again. This amateur, +whoever he was, was almost as good as his detective story. The "bug" +called the Naval Observatory once more and began repeating his entire +message for the third time.</p> + +<p>"To all mankind"—he addressed himself modestly—"To all mankind—To all +mankind—I am the dictator—of human destiny—Through the earth's +rotation—I control—day and night—summer and winter—I command +the—cessation of hostilities and—the abolition of war upon the +globe—I appoint the—United States—as my agent for this purpose—As +evidence of my power I shall increase the length of the day—from +midnight to midnight—of Thursday, July 22d, by the period of five +minutes.—<span class="smcap">Pax</span>."</p> + +<p>The jolly joker, having repeated thus his extraordinary message to all +mankind, stopped sending.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be hanged!" gasped Bill Hood. Then he wound up his magnetic +detector and sent an answering challenge into the ether.</p> + +<p>"Can—the—funny—stuff!" he snapped. "And tune out—or—we'll +revoke—your license!"</p> + +<p>"What a gall!" he grunted, folding up the yellow sheet of pad paper upon +which he had taken down the message to all mankind and thrusting it into +his book for a marker. "All the fools aren't dead yet!"</p> + +<p>Then he picked up the <i>Lincoln</i> and got down to real work. The "bug" and +his message passed from memory.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2> + + +<p>The following Thursday afternoon a perspiring and dusty stranger from +St. Louis, who, with the Metropolitan Art Museum as his objective, was +trudging wearily through Central Park, New York City, at two o'clock, +paused to gaze with some interest at the obelisk known as Cleopatra's +Needle. The heat rose in shimmering waves from the asphalt of the +roadway, but the stranger was used to heat and he was conscientiously +engaged in the duty of seeing New York. Opposite the Museum he seated +himself upon a bench in the shade of a faded dogwood and wiped the +moisture from his eyes. The glare from the unprotected boulevards was +terrific. Under these somewhat unfavourable conditions he was occupied +in studying the monument of Egypt's past magnificence when he felt a +slight dragging sensation. It was indefinable and had no visual +concomitant. But it was as though the brakes were being gently applied +to a Pullman train. He was the only human being in the neighbourhood; +not even a policeman was visible; and the experience gave him a creepy +feeling. Then to his amazement Cleopatra's Needle slowly toppled from +its pedestal and fell with a crash across the roadway. At first he +thought it an optical illusion and wiped his eyes again, but it was +nothing of the kind. The monument, which had a moment before pointed to +the zenith, now lay shattered in three pieces upon the softening +concrete of the drive. The stranger arose and examined the fragments of +the monolith, one of which lay squarely across the road, barring all +passage. Round the pedestal were scattered small pieces of broken +granite, and from these, after looking about cautiously, he chose one +with care and placed it in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Gosh!" he whispered to himself as he hurried toward Fifth Avenue. +"That'll just be something to tell 'em at home! Eh, Bill?"</p> + +<p>The dragging sensation experienced by the tourist from St. Louis was +felt by many millions of people all over the world, but, as in most +countries it occurred coincidently with pronounced earthquake shocks and +tremblings, for the most part it passed unnoticed as a specific, +individual phenomenon.</p> + +<p>Hood, in the wireless room at Georgetown, suddenly heard in his +receivers a roar like that of Niagara and quickly removed them from his +ears. He had never known such statics. He was familiar with electrical +disturbances in the ether, but this was beyond anything in his +experience. Moreover, when he next tried to use his instruments he +discovered that something had put the whole apparatus out of commission. +About an hour later he felt a pronounced pressure in his eardrums, which +gradually passed off. The wireless refused to work for nearly eight +hours, and it was still recalcitrant when he went off duty at seven +o'clock. He had not felt the quivering of the earth round Washington, +and being an unimaginative man he accepted the other facts of the +situation philosophically. The statics would pass, and then Georgetown +would be in communication with the rest of the world again, that was +all. At seven o'clock the night shift came in, and Hood borrowed a +pipeful of tobacco from him and put on his coat.</p> + +<p>"Say, Bill, did you feel the shock?" asked the shift, hanging up his hat +and taking a match from Hood.</p> + +<p>"No," answered the latter, "but the statics have put the machine on the +blink. She'll come round all right in an hour or so. The air's gummy +with ions. Shock, did you say?"</p> + +<p>"Sure. Had 'em all over the country. Say, the boys at the magnetic +observatory claim their compass shifted east and west instead of north +and south, and stayed that way for five minutes. Didn't you feel the air +pressure? I should worry! And say, I just dropped into the +Meteorological Department's office and looked at the barometer. She'd +jumped up half an inch in about two seconds, wiggled round some, and +then come back to normal. You can see the curve yourself if you ask +Fraser to show you the self-registering barograph. Some doin's, I tell +you!"</p> + +<p>He nodded his head with an air of importance.</p> + +<p>"Take your word for it," answered Hood without emotion, save for a +slight annoyance at the other's arrogation of superior information. +"'Tain't the first time there's been an earthquake since creation." And +he strolled out, swinging to the doors behind him.</p> + +<p>The night shift settled himself before the instruments with a look of +dreary resignation.</p> + +<p>"Say," he muttered aloud, "you couldn't jar that feller with a +thirteen-inch bomb! He wouldn't even rub himself!"</p> + +<p>Hood, meantime, bought an evening paper and walked slowly to the +district where he lived. It was a fine night and there was no particular +excitement in the streets. His wife opened the door.</p> + +<p>"Well," she greeted him, "I'm glad you've come home at last. I was plumb +scared something had happened to you. Such a shaking and rumbling and +rattling I never did hear! Did you feel it?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't feel nothin'!" answered Bill Hood. "Some one said there was a +shock, that was all I heard about it. The machine's out of kilter."</p> + +<p>"They won't blame you, will they?" she asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"You bet they won't!" he replied. "Look here, I'm hungry. Are the +waffles ready?"</p> + +<p>"Have 'em in a jiffy!" she smiled. "You go in and read your paper."</p> + +<p>He did as he was directed, and seated himself in a rocker under the +gaslight. After perusing the baseball news he turned back to the front +page. The paper was a fairly late edition, containing up-to-the-minute +telegraphic notes. In the centre column, alongside the announcement of +the annihilation of three entire regiments of Silesians by the explosion +of nitroglycerine concealed in dummy gun carriages, was the following:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<h4>CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE FALLS</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Earthquake Destroys Famous Monument</span></h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Shocks Felt Here and All Over U. S.</span></h4> + +<p>Washington was visited by a succession of earthquake shocks early +this afternoon, which, in varying force, were felt throughout the +United States and Europe. Little damage was done, but those having +offices in tall buildings had an unpleasant experience which they +will not soon forget. A peculiar phenomenon accompanying this +seismic disturbance was the variation of the magnetic needle by over +eighty degrees from north to east and an extraordinary rise and fall +of the barometer. All wireless communication had to be abandoned, +owing to the ionizing of the atmosphere, and up to the time this +edition went to press had not been resumed. Telegrams by way of +Colon report similar disturbances in South America. In New York the +monument in Central Park known as Cleopatra's Needle was thrown from +its pedestal and broken into three pieces. The contract for its +repair and replacement has already been let. The famous monument was +a present from the Khedive of Egypt to the United States, and +formerly stood in Alexandria. The late William H. Vanderbilt +defrayed the expense of transporting it to this country.</p></div> + +<p>Bill Hood read this with scant interest. The Giants had knocked the +Braves' pitcher out of the box, and an earthquake seemed a small matter. +His mind did not once revert to the mysterious message from Pax the day +before. He was thinking of something far more important.</p> + +<p>"Say, Nellie," he demanded, tossing aside the paper impatiently, "ain't +those waffles ready yet?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2> + + +<p>On that same evening, Thursday, July 22d, two astronomers attached to +the Naval Observatory sat in the half darkness of the meridian-circle +room watching the firmament sweep slowly across the aperture of the +giant lens. The chamber was as quiet as the grave, the two men rarely +speaking as they noted their observations. Paris might be taken, Berlin +be razed, London put to the torch; a million human beings might be blown +into eternity, or the shrieks of mangled creatures lying in heaps before +pellet-strewn barbed-wire entanglements rend the summer night; great +battleships of the line might plunge to the bottom, carrying their crews +with them; and the dead of two continents rot unburied—yet unmoved the +stars would pursue their nightly march across the heavens, cruel day +would follow pitiless night, and the careless earth follow its +accustomed orbit as though the race were not writhing in its death +agony. Gazing into the infinity of space human existence seemed but the +scum upon a rainpool, human warfare but the frenzy of insectivora. +Unmindful of the starving hordes of Paris and Berlin, of plague-swept +Russia, or of the drowned thousands of the North Baltic Fleet, these two +men calmly studied the procession of the stars—the onward bore of the +universe through space, and the spectra of newborn or dying worlds.</p> + +<p>It was a suffocatingly hot night and their foreheads reeked with sweat. +Dim shapes on the walls of the room indicated what by day was a tangle +of clockwork and recording instruments, connected by electricity with +various buttons and switches upon the table. The brother of the big +clock in the wireless operating room hung nearby, its face illuminated +by a tiny electric lamp, showing the hour to be eleven-fifty. +Occasionally the younger man made a remark in a low tone, and the elder +wrote something on a card.</p> + +<p>"The 'seeing' is poor to-night," said Evarts, the younger man. "The +upper air is full of striae and, though it seems like a clear night, +everything looks dim—a volcanic haze probably. Perhaps the Aleutian +Islands are in eruption again."</p> + +<p>"Very likely," answered Thornton, the elder astronomer. "The shocks this +afternoon would indicate something of the sort."</p> + +<p>"Curious performance of the magnetic needle. They say it held due east +for several minutes," continued Evarts, hoping to engage his senior in +conversation—almost an impossibility, as he well knew.</p> + +<p>Thornton did not reply. He was carefully observing the infinitesimal +approach of a certain star to the meridian line, marked by a thread +across the circle's aperture. When that point of light should cross the +thread it would be midnight, and July 22, 1916, would be gone forever. +Every midnight the indicating stars crossed the thread exactly on time, +each night a trifle earlier than the night before by a definite and +calculable amount, due to the march of the earth around the sun. So they +had crossed the lines in every observatory since clocks and telescopes +had been invented. Heretofore, no matter what cataclysm of nature had +occurred, the star had always crossed the line not a second too soon or +a second too late, but exactly on time. It was the one positively +predictable thing, foretellable for ten or for ten thousand years by a +simple mathematical calculation. It was surer than death or the tax-man. +It was absolute.</p> + +<p>Thornton was a reserved man of few words—impersonal, methodical, +serious. He spent many nights there with Evarts, hardly exchanging a +phrase with him, and then only on some matter immediately concerned with +their work. Evarts could dimly see his long, grave profile bending over +his eyepiece, shrouded in the heavy shadows across the table. He felt a +great respect, even tenderness, for this taciturn, high-principled, +devoted scientist. He had never seen him excited, hardly ever aroused. +He was a man of figures, whose only passion seemed to be the "music of +the spheres."</p> + +<p>A long silence followed, during which Thornton seemed to bend more +intently than ever over his eyepiece. The hand of the big clock slipped +gradually to midnight.</p> + +<p>"There's something wrong with the clock," said Thornton suddenly, and +his voice sounded curiously dry, almost unnatural. "Telephone to the +equatorial room for the time."</p> + +<p>Puzzled by Thornton's manner Evarts did as instructed.</p> + +<p>"Forty seconds past midnight," came the reply from the equatorial +observer.</p> + +<p>Evarts repeated the answer for Thornton's benefit, looking at their own +clock at the same time. It pointed to exactly forty seconds past the +hour. He heard Thornton suppress something like an oath.</p> + +<p>"There's something the matter!" repeated Thornton dumbly. "Aeta isn't +within five minutes of crossing. Both clocks can't be wrong!"</p> + +<p>He pressed a button that connected with the wireless room.</p> + +<p>"What's the time?" he called sharply through the nickel-plated +speaking-tube.</p> + +<p>"Forty-five seconds past the hour," came the answer. Then: "But I want +to see you, sir. There's something queer going on. May I come in?"</p> + +<p>"Come!" almost shouted Thornton.</p> + +<p>A moment later the flushed face of Williams, the night operator, +appeared in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, sir," he stammered, "but something fierce must have +happened! I thought you ought to know. The Eiffel Tower has been trying +to talk to us for over two hours, but I can't get what he's saying."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter—atmospherics?" snapped Evarts.</p> + +<p>"No; the air <i>was</i> full of them, sir—shrieking with them you might say; +but they've stopped now. The trouble has been that I've been jammed by +the Brussels station talking to the Belgian Congo—same wave length—and +I couldn't tune Brussels out. Every once in a while I'd get a word of +what Paris was saying, and it's always the same word—'<i>heure</i>.' But +just now Brussels stopped sending and I got the complete message of the +Eiffel Tower. They wanted to know our time by Greenwich. I gave it to +'em. Then Paris said to tell you to take your transit with great care +and send result to them immediately——"</p> + +<p>The ordinarily calm Thornton gave a great suspiration and his face was +livid. "Aeta's just crossed—we're five minutes out! Evarts, am I crazy? +Am I talking straight?"</p> + +<p>Evarts laid his hand on the other's arm.</p> + +<p>"The earthquake's knocked out your transit," he suggested.</p> + +<p>"And Paris—how about Paris?" asked Thornton. He wrote something down on +a card mechanically and started for the door. "Get me the Eiffel Tower!" +he ordered Williams.</p> + +<p>The three men stood motionless, as the wireless man sent the Eiffel +Tower call hurtling across the Atlantic:</p> + +<p>"ETA—ETA—ETA."</p> + +<p>"All right," whispered Williams, "I've got 'em."</p> + +<p>"Tell Paris that our clocks are all out five minutes according to the +meridian."</p> + +<p>Williams worked the key rapidly, and then listened.</p> + +<p>"The Eiffel Tower says that their chronometers also appear to be out by +the same time, and that Greenwich and Moscow both report the same thing. +Wait a minute! He says Moscow has wired that at eight o'clock last +evening a tremendous aurora of bright yellow light was seen to the +northwest, and that their spectroscopes showed the helium line only. He +wants to know if we have any explanation to offer——"</p> + +<p>"Explanation!" gasped Evarts. "Tell Paris that we had earthquake shocks +here together with violent seismic movements, sudden rise in barometer, +followed by fall, statics, and erratic variation in the magnetic +needle."</p> + +<p>"What does it all mean?" murmured Thornton, staring blankly at the +younger man.</p> + +<p>The key rattled and the rotary spark whined into a shriek. Then silence.</p> + +<p>"Paris says that the same manifestations have been observed in Russia, +Algeria, Italy, and London," called out Williams. "Ah! What's that? +Nauen's calling." Again he sent the blue flame crackling between the +coils. "Nauen reports an error of five minutes in their meridian +observations according to the official clocks. And hello! He says Berlin +has capitulated and that the Russians began marching through at +daylight—that is about two hours ago. He says he is about to turn the +station over to the Allied Commissioners, who will at once assume +charge."</p> + +<p>Evarts whistled.</p> + +<p>"How about it?" he asked of Thornton.</p> + +<p>The latter shook his head gravely.</p> + +<p>"It may be—explainable—or," he added hoarsely, "it may mean the end of +the world."</p> + +<p>Williams sprang from his chair and confronted Thornton.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" he almost shouted.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the universe is running down!" said Evarts soothingly. "At any +rate, keep it to yourself, old chap. If the jig is up there's no use +scaring people to death a month or so too soon!"</p> + +<p>Thornton grasped an arm of each.</p> + +<p>"Not a word of this to anybody!" he ground out through compressed lips. +"Absolute silence, or hell may break loose on earth!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2> + + +<p>Free translation of the Official Report of the Imperial Commission of +the Berlin Academy of Science to the Imperial Commissioners of the +German Federated States:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The unprecedented cosmic phenomena which occurred on the 22d and +27th days of the month of July, and which were felt over the entire +surface of the globe, have left a permanent effect of such +magnitude on the position of the earth's axis in space and the +duration of the period of the rotation, that it is impossible to +predict at the present time the ultimate changes or modifications +in the climatic conditions which may follow. This commission has +considered most carefully the possible causes that may have been +responsible for this catastrophe—(<i>Weltunfall</i>)—and by +eliminating every hypothesis that was incapable of explaining all +of the various disturbances, is now in a position to present two +theories, either one of which appears to be capable of explaining +the recent disturbances.</p> + +<p>The phenomena in question may be briefly summarized as follows;</p> + +<p>1. <span class="smcap">The Yellow Aurora</span>. In Northern Europe this +appeared suddenly on the night of July 22d as a broad, faint +sheaf—(<i>Lichtbündel</i>)—of clear yellow light in the western sky. +Reports from America show that at Washington it appeared in the +north as a narrow shaft of light, inclined at an angle of about +thirty degrees with the horizon, and shooting off to the east. Near +the horizon it was extremely brilliant, and the spectroscope showed +that the light was due to glowing helium gas.</p> + +<p>The Potsdam Observatory reported that the presence of sodium has +been detected in the aurora; but this appears to have been a mistake +due to the faintness of the light and the circumstance that no +comparison spectrum was impressed on the plate. On the photograph +made at the Washington Observatory the helium line is certain, as a +second exposure was made with a sodium flame; and the two lines are +shown distinctly separated.</p> + +<p>2. <span class="smcap">The Negative Acceleration</span>. This phenomenon was observed +to a greater or less extent all over the globe. It was especially +marked near the equator; but in Northern Europe it was noted by only +a few observers, though many clocks were stopped and other +instruments deranged. There appears to be no doubt that a force of +terrific magnitude was applied in a tangential direction to the +surface of the earth, in such a direction as to oppose its axial +rotation, with the effect that the surface velocity was diminished +by about one part in three hundred, resulting in a lengthening of +the day by five minutes, thirteen and a half seconds.</p> + +<p>The application of this brake—(<i>Bremsekraft</i>), as we may term +it—caused acceleration phenomena to manifest themselves precisely +as on a railroad train when being brought to a stop. The change in +the surface speed of the earth at the equator has amounted to about +6.4 kilometres an hour; and various observations show that this +change of velocity was brought about by the operation of the unknown +force for a period of time of less than three minutes. The negative +acceleration thus represented would certainly be too small to +produce any marked physiological sensations, and yet the reports +from various places indicate that they were certainly observed. The +sensations felt are usually described as similar to those +experienced in a moving automobile when the brake is very gently +applied.</p> + +<p>Moreover, certain destructive actions are reported from localities +near the equator—chimneys fell and tall buildings swayed; while +from New York comes the report that the obelisk in Central Park was +thrown from its pedestal. It appears that these effects were due to +the circumstance that the alteration of velocity was propagated +through the earth as a wave similar to an earthquake wave, and that +the effects were cumulative at certain points—a theory that is +substantiated by reports that at certain localities, even near the +equator, no effects were noted.</p> + +<p>3. <span class="smcap">Tidal Waves</span>. These were observed everywhere and were +very destructive in many places. In the Panama Canal, which is near +the equator and which runs nearly east and west, the sweep of the +water was so great that it flowed over the Gatun Lock. On the +eastern coasts of the various continents there was a recession of +the sea, the fall of the tide being from three to five metres below +the low-water mark. On the western coasts there was a corresponding +rise, which in some cases reached a level of over twelve metres.</p> + +<p>That the tidal phenomena were not more marked and more destructive +is a matter of great surprise, and has been considered as evidence +that the retarding force was not applied at a single spot on the +earth's surface, but was a distributed force, which acted on the +water as well as on the land, though to a less extent. It is +difficult, however, to conceive of a force capable of acting in such +a way; and Björnson's theory of the magnetic vortex in the ether has +been rejected by this commission.</p> + +<p>4. <span class="smcap">Atmospheric Disturbances</span>. Some time after the appearance +of the yellow aurora a sudden rise in atmospheric pressure, followed +by a gradual fall considerably below the normal pressure, was +recorded over the entire surface of the globe. Calculations based on +the time of arrival of this disturbance at widely separated points +show that it proceeded with the velocity of sound from a point +situated probably in Northern Labrador. The maximum rise of pressure +recorded was registered at Halifax, the self-recording barographs +showing that the pressure rose over six centimetres in less than +five minutes.</p> + +<p>5. <span class="smcap">Shift in Direction of the Earth's Axis</span>. The axis of the +earth has been shifted in space by the disturbance and now points +almost exactly toward the double star Delta Ursæ Minoris. This +change appears to have resulted from the circumstance that the force +was applied to the surface of the globe in a direction not quite +parallel to the direction of rotation, the result being the +development of a new axis and a shift in the positions of the poles, +which it will now be necessary to rediscover.</p> + +<p>It appears that these most remarkable cosmic phenomena can be +explained in either of two ways: they may have resulted from an +explosive or volcanic discharge from the surface of the earth, or +from the oblique impact of a meteoric stream moving at a very high +velocity. It seems unlikely that sufficient energy to bring about +the observed changes could have been developed by a volcanic +disturbance of the ordinary type; but if radioactive forces are +allowed to come into play the amount of energy available is +practically unlimited.</p> + +<p>It is difficult, however, to conceive of any way in which a sudden +liberation of atomic energy could have been brought about by any +terrestrial agency; so that the first theory, though able to account +for the facts, seems to be the less tenable of the two. The meteoric +theory offers no especial difficulty. The energy delivered by a +comparatively small mass of finely divided matter, moving at a +velocity of several hundred kilometres a second—and such a velocity +is by no means unknown—would be amply sufficient to alter the +velocity of rotation by the small amount observed.</p> + +<p>Moreover, the impact of such a meteoric stream may have +developed a temperature sufficiently high to bring about +radioactive changes, the effect of which would be to expel +helium and other disintegration products at cathode-ray +velocity—(<i>Kathoden-Strahlen-Fortpflanzung-Geschwindigkeit</i>)—from +the surface of the earth; and the recoil exerted by this expulsion +would add itself to the force of the meteoric impact.</p> + +<p>The presence of helium makes this latter hypothesis not altogether +improbable, while the atmospheric wave of pressure would result at +once from the disruption of the air by the passage of the meteor +stream through it. Exploration of the region in which it seems +probable that the disturbance took place will undoubtedly furnish +the data necessary for the complete solution of the problem." +[Pp. 17-19.]</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2> + + +<p>At ten o'clock one evening, shortly after the occurrences heretofore +described, an extraordinary conference occurred at the White House, +probably the most remarkable ever held there or elsewhere. At the long +table at which the cabinet meetings took place sat six gentlemen in +evening dress, each trying to appear unconcerned, if not amused. At the +head of the table was the President of the United States; next to him +Count von Koenitz, the German Ambassador, representing the Imperial<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +German Commissioners, who had taken over the reins of the German +Government after the abdication of the Kaiser; and, on the opposite +side, Monsieur Emil Liban, Prince Rostoloff, and Sir John Smith, the +respective ambassadors of France, Russia, and Great Britain. The sixth +person was Thornton, the astronomer.</p> + +<p>The President had only succeeded in bringing this conference about after +the greatest effort and the most skilful diplomacy—in view of the +extreme importance which, he assured them all, he attached to the +matters which he desired to lay before them. Only for this reason had +the ambassadors of warring nations consented to meet—unofficially as it +were.</p> + +<p>"With great respect, your Excellency," said Count von Koenitz, "the +matter is preposterous—as much so as a fairy tale by Grimm! This +wireless operator of whom you speak is lying about these messages. If he +received them at all—a fact which hangs solely upon his word—he +received them <i>after</i> and not <i>before</i> the phenomena recorded."</p> + +<p>The President shook his head. "That might hold true of the first +message—the one received July 19th," said he, "but the second message, +foretelling the lengthening of July 27th, <i>was delivered on that day, +and was in my hands before the disturbances occurred</i>."</p> + +<p>Von Koenitz fingered his moustache and shrugged his shoulders. It was +clear that he regarded the whole affair as absurd, undignified.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Liban turned impatiently from him.</p> + +<p>"Your Excellency," he said, addressing the President, "I cannot share +the views of Count von Koenitz. I regard this affair as of the most +stupendous importance. Messages or no messages, extraordinary natural +phenomena are occurring which may shortly end in the extinction of human +life upon the planet. A power which can control the length of the day +can annihilate the globe."</p> + +<p>"You cannot change the facts," remarked Prince Rostoloff sternly to the +German Ambassador. "The earth has changed its orbit. Professor +Vaskofsky, of the Imperial College, has so declared. There is some +cause. Be it God or devil, there is a cause. Are we to sit still and do +nothing while the globe's crust freezes and our armies congeal into +corpses?" He trembled with agitation.</p> + +<p>"Calm yourself, <i>mon cher Prince</i>!" said Monsieur Liban. "So far we have +gained fifteen minutes and have lost nothing! But, as you say, whether +or not the sender of these messages is responsible, there is a cause, +and we must find it."</p> + +<p>"But how? That is the question," exclaimed the President almost +apologetically, for he felt, as did Count von Koenitz, that somehow an +explanation would shortly be forthcoming that would make this conference +seem the height of the ridiculous. "I have already," he added hastily, +"instructed the entire force of the National Academy of Sciences to +direct its energies toward the solution of these phenomena. Undoubtedly +Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and France are doing the same. The +scientists report that the yellow aurora seen in the north, the +earthquakes, the variation of the compass, and the eccentricities of the +barometer are probably all connected more or less directly with the +change in the earth's orbit. But they offer no explanation. They do not +suggest what the aurora is nor why its appearance should have this +effect. It, therefore, seems to me clearly my duty to lay before you all +the facts as far as they are known to me. Among these facts are the +mysterious messages received by wireless at the Naval Observatory +immediately preceding these events."</p> + +<p>"<i>Post hoc, ergo propter hoc!</i>" half sneered Von Koenitz.</p> + +<p>The President smiled wearily.</p> + +<p>"What do you wish me to do?" he asked, glancing round the table. "Shall +we remain inactive? Shall we wait and see what may happen?"</p> + +<p>"No! No!" shouted Rostoloff, jumping to his feet. "Another week and we +may all be plunged into eternity. It is suicidal not to regard this +matter seriously. We are sick from war. And perhaps Count von Koenitz, +in view of the fall of Berlin, would welcome something of the sort as an +honourable way out of his country's difficulties."</p> + +<p>"Sir!" cried the count, leaping to his feet. "Have a care! It has cost +Russia four million men to reach Berlin. When we have taken Paris we +shall recapture Berlin and commence the march of our victorious eagles +toward Moscow and the Winter Palace."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Be seated, I implore you!" exclaimed the +President.</p> + +<p>The Russian and German ambassadors somewhat ungraciously resumed their +former places, casting at each other glances of undisguised contempt.</p> + +<p>"As I see the matter," continued the President, "there are two distinct +propositions before you: The first relates to how far the extraordinary +events of the past week are of such a character as to demand joint +investigation and action by the Powers. The second involves the cause of +these events and their connection with and relation to the sender of the +messages signed Pax. I shall ask you to signify your opinion as to each +of these questions."</p> + +<p>"I believe that some action should be taken, based on the assumption +that they are manifestations of one and the same power or cause," said +Monsieur Liban emphatically.</p> + +<p>"I agree with the French Ambassador," growled Rostoloff.</p> + +<p>"I am of opinion that the phenomena should be the subject of proper +scientific investigation," remarked Count von Koenitz more calmly. "But +as far as these messages are concerned they are, if I may be pardoned +for saying so, a foolish joke. It is undignified to take any cognizance +of them."</p> + +<p>"What do you think, Sir John?" asked the President, turning to the +English Ambassador.</p> + +<p>"Before making up my mind," returned the latter quietly, "I should like +to see the operator who received them."</p> + +<p>"By all means!" exclaimed Von Koenitz.</p> + +<p>The President pressed a button and his secretary entered.</p> + +<p>"I had anticipated such a desire on the part of all of you," he +announced, "and arranged to have him here. He is waiting outside. Shall +I have him brought in?"</p> + +<p>"Yes! Yes!" answered Rostoloff. And the others nodded.</p> + +<p>The door opened, and Bill Hood, wearing his best new blue suit and +nervously twisting a faded bicycle cap between his fingers, stumbled +awkwardly into the room. His face was bright red with embarrassment and +one of his cheeks exhibited a marked protuberance. He blinked in the +glare of the electric light.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hood," the President addressed him courteously, "I have sent for +you to explain to these gentlemen, who are the ambassadors of the great +European Powers, the circumstances under which you received the wireless +messages from the unknown person describing himself as 'Pax.'"</p> + +<p>Hood shifted from his right to his left foot and pressed his lips +together. Von Koenitz fingered the waxed ends of his moustache and +regarded the operator whimsically.</p> + +<p>"In the first place," went on the President, "we desire to know whether +the messages which you have reported were received under ordinary or +under unusual conditions. In a word, could you form any opinion as to +the whereabouts of the sender?"</p> + +<p>Hood scratched the side of his nose in a manner politely doubtful.</p> + +<p>"Sure thing, your Honour," he answered at last. "Sure the conditions was +unusual. That feller has some juice and no mistake."</p> + +<p>"Juice?" inquired Von Koenitz.</p> + +<p>"Yare—current. Whines like a steel top. Fifty kilowatts sure, and maybe +more! And a twelve-thousand-metre wave."</p> + +<p>"I do not fully understand," interjected Rostoloff. "Please explain, +sir."</p> + +<p>"Ain't nothin' to explain," returned Hood. "He's just got a hell of a +wave length, that's all. Biggest on earth. We're only tuned for a +three-thousand-metre wave. At first I could hardly take him at all. I +had to throw in our new Henderson ballast coils before I could hear +properly. I reckon there ain't another station in Christendom can get +him."</p> + +<p>"Ah," remarked Von Koenitz. "One of your millionaire amateurs, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>"Yare," agreed Hood. "I thought sure he was a nut."</p> + +<p>"A what?" interrupted Sir John Smith.</p> + +<p>"A nut," answered Hood. "A crank, so to speak."</p> + +<p>"Ah, 'krank'!" nodded the German. "Exactly—a lunatic! That is precisely +what I say!"</p> + +<p>"But I don't think it's no nut now," countered Hood valiantly. "If he is +a bug he's the biggest bug in all creation, that's all I can say. He's +got the goods, that's what he's got. He'll do some damage before he gets +through."</p> + +<p>"Are these messages addressed to anybody in particular?" inquired Sir +John, who was studying Hood intently.</p> + +<p>"Well, they are and they ain't. Pax—that's what he calls +himself—signals NAA, our number, you understand, and then says what he +has to say to the whole world, care of the United States. The first +message I thought was a joke and stuck it in a book I was reading, +'<i>Silas Snooks</i>'——"</p> + +<p>"What?" ejaculated Von Koenitz impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Snooks—man's name—feller in the book—nothing to do with this +business," explained the operator. "I forgot all about it. But after the +earthquake and all the rest of the fuss I dug it out and gave it to Mr. +Thornton. Then on the 27th came the next one, saying that Pax was +getting tired of waiting for us and was going to start something. That +came at one o'clock in the afternoon, and the fun began at three sharp. +The whole observatory went on the blink. Say, there ain't any doubt in +your minds that it's <i>him</i>, is there?"</p> + +<p>Von Koenitz looked cynically round the room.</p> + +<p>"There is not!" exclaimed Rostoloff and Liban in the same breath.</p> + +<p>The German laughed.</p> + +<p>"Speak for yourselves, Excellencies," he sneered. His tone nettled the +wireless representative of the sovereign American people.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I'm a liar?" he demanded, clenching his jaw and glaring at +Von Koenitz.</p> + +<p>The German Ambassador shrugged his shoulders again. Such things were +impossible in a civilized country—at Potsdam—but what could you +expect——</p> + +<p>"Steady, Hood!" whispered Thornton.</p> + +<p>"Remember, Mr. Hood, that you are here to answer our questions," said +the President sternly. "You must not address his Excellency, Baron von +Koenitz, in this fashion."</p> + +<p>"But the man was making a monkey of me!" muttered Hood. "All I say is, +look out. This Pax is on his job and means business. I just got another +call before I came over here—at nine o'clock."</p> + +<p>"What was its purport?" inquired the President.</p> + +<p>"Why, it said Pax was getting tired of nothing being done and wanted +action of some sort. Said that men were dying like flies, and he +proposed to put an end to it at any cost. And—and——"</p> + +<p>"Yes! Yes!" ejaculated Liban breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"And he would give further evidence of his control over the forces of +nature to-night."</p> + +<p>"Ha! Ha!" Von Koenitz leaned back in amusement. "My friend," he +chuckled, "you—are—the 'nut'!"</p> + +<p>What form Hood's resentment might have taken is problematical; but as +the German's words left his mouth the electric lights suddenly went out +and the windows rattled ominously. At the same moment each occupant of +the room felt himself sway slightly toward the east wall, on which +appeared a bright yellow glow. Instinctively they all turned to the +window which faced the north. The whole sky was flooded with an +orange-yellow aurora that rivalled the sunlight in intensity.</p> + +<p>"What'd I tell you?" mumbled Hood.</p> + +<p>The Executive Mansion quivered, and even in that yellow light the faces +of the ambassadors seemed pale with fear. And then as the glow slowly +faded in the north there floated down across the aperture of the window +something soft and fluffy like feathers. Thicker and faster it came +until the lawn of the White House was covered with it. The air in the +room turned cold. Through the window a large flake circled and lit on +the back of Rostoloff's head.</p> + +<p>"Snow!" he cried. "A snowstorm—in August!"</p> + +<p>The President arose and closed the window. Almost immediately the +electric lights burned up again.</p> + +<p>"Now are you satisfied?" cried Liban to the German.</p> + +<p>"Satisfied?" growled Von Koenitz. "I have seen plenty of snowstorms in +August. They have them daily in the Alps. You ask me if I am satisfied. +Of what? That earthquakes, the aurora borealis, electrical disturbances, +snowstorms exist—yes. That a mysterious bugaboo is responsible for +these things—no!"</p> + +<p>"What, then, do you require?" gasped Liban.</p> + +<p>"More than a snowstorm!" retorted the German. "When I was a boy at the +gymnasium we had a thunderstorm with fishes in it. They were everywhere +one stepped, all over the ground. But we did not conclude that Jonah was +giving us a demonstration of his power over the whale."</p> + +<p>He faced the others defiantly; in his voice was mockery.</p> + +<p>"You may retire, Mr. Hood," said the President. "But you will kindly +wait outside."</p> + +<p>"That is an honest man if ever I saw one, Mr. President," announced Sir +John, after the operator had gone out. "I am satisfied that we are in +communication with a human being of practically supernatural powers."</p> + +<p>"What, then, shall be done?" inquired Rostoloff anxiously. "The world +will be annihilated!"</p> + +<p>"Your Excellencies"—Von Koenitz arose and took up a graceful position +at the end of the table—"I must protest against what seems to me to be +an extraordinary credulity upon the part of all of you. I speak to you +as a rational human being, not as an ambassador. Something has occurred +to affect the earth's orbit. It may result in a calamity. None can +foretell. This planet may be drawn off into space by the attraction of +some wandering world that has not yet come within observation. But one +thing we know: No power on or of the earth can possibly derange its +relation to the other celestial bodies. That would be, as you say here, +'lifting one's self by one's own boot-straps.' I do not doubt the +accuracy of your clocks and scientific instruments. Those of my own +country are in harmony with yours. But to say that the cause of all this +is a <i>man</i> is preposterous. If the mysterious Pax makes the heavens +fall, they will tumble on his own head. Is he going to send himself to +eternity along with the rest of us? Hardly! This Hood is a monstrous +liar or a dangerous lunatic. Even if he has received these messages, +they are the emanations of a crank, as, he says, he himself first +suspected. Let us master this hysteria born of the strain of constant +war. In a word, let us go to bed."</p> + +<p>"Count von Koenitz," replied Sir John after a pause, "you speak +forcefully, even persuasively. But your argument is based upon a +proposition that is scientifically fallacious. An atom of gunpowder can +disintegrate itself, 'lift itself by its own boot-straps!' Why not the +earth? Have we as yet begun to solve all the mysteries of nature? Is it +inconceivable that there should be an undiscovered explosive capable of +disrupting the globe? We have earthquakes. Is it beyond imagination that +the forces which produce them can be controlled?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Sir John," returned Von Koenitz courteously, "my ultimate +answer is that we have no adequate reason to connect the phenomena which +have disturbed the earth's rotation with any human agency."</p> + +<p>"That," interposed the President, "is something upon which individuals +may well differ. I suppose that under other conditions you would be open +to conviction?"</p> + +<p>"Assuredly," answered Von Koenitz. "Should the sender of these messages +prophesy the performance of some miracle that could not be explained by +natural causes, I would be forced to admit my error."</p> + +<p>Monsieur Liban had also arisen and was walking nervously up and down the +room. Suddenly he turned to Von Koenitz and in a voice shaking with +emotion cried: "Let us then invite Pax to give us a sign that will +satisfy you."</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Liban," replied Von Koenitz stiffly, "I refuse to place myself +in the position of communicating with a lunatic."</p> + +<p>"Very well," shouted the Frenchman, "I will take the responsibility of +making myself ridiculous. I will request the President of the United +States to act as the agent of France for this purpose."</p> + +<p>He drew a notebook and a fountain pen from his pocket and carefully +wrote out a message which he handed to the President. The latter read it +aloud:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Pax</i>: The Ambassador of the French Republic requests me to +communicate to you the fact that he desires some further evidence +of your power to control the movements of the earth and the +destinies of mankind, such phenomena to be preferably of a harmless +character, but inexplicable by any theory of natural causation. I +await your reply.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">The President of the United States</span>.</p></div> + +<p>"Send for Hood," ordered the President to the secretary who answered the +bell. "Gentlemen, I suggest that we ourselves go to Georgetown and +superintend the sending of this message."</p> + +<p>Half an hour later Bill Hood sat in his customary chair in the wireless +operating room surrounded by the President of the United States, the +ambassadors of France, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia, and Professor +Thornton. The faces of all wore expressions of the utmost seriousness, +except that of Von Koenitz, who looked as if he were participating in an +elaborate hoax. Several of these distinguished gentlemen had never seen +a wireless apparatus before, and showed some excitement as Hood made +ready to send the most famous message ever transmitted through the +ether. At last he threw over his rheostat and the hum of the rotary +spark rose into its staccato song. Hood sent out a few V's and then +began calling:</p> + +<p>"PAX—PAX—PAX."</p> + +<p>Breathlessly the group waited while he listened for a reply. Again he +called:</p> + +<p>"PAX—PAX—PAX."</p> + +<p>He had already thrown in his Henderson ballast coils and was ready for +the now familiar wave. He closed his eyes, waiting for that sharp +metallic cry that came no one knew whence. The others in the group also +listened intently, as if by so doing they, too, might hear the answer if +any there should be. Suddenly Hood stiffened.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" he whispered. The President handed him the message, and +Hood's fingers played over the key while the spark sent its singing note +through the ether.</p> + +<p>"Such phenomena to be preferably of a harmless character, but +inexplicable by any theory of natural causation," he concluded.</p> + +<p>An uncanny dread seized on Thornton, who had withdrawn himself into the +background. What was this strange communion? Who was this mysterious +Pax? Were these real men or creatures of a grotesque dream? Was he not +drowsing over his eyepiece in the meridian-circle room? Then a +simultaneous movement upon the part of those gathered round the operator +convinced him of the reality of what was taking place. Hood was +laboriously writing upon a sheet of yellow pad paper, and the +ambassadors were unceremoniously crowding each other in their eagerness +to read.</p> + +<p>"To the President of the United States," wrote Hood: "In reply to your +message requesting further evidence of my power to compel the cessation +of hostilities within twenty-four hours, I"—there was a pause for +nearly a minute, during which the ticking of the big clock sounded to +Thornton like revolver shots—"I will excavate a channel through the +Atlas Mountains and divert the Mediterranean into the Sahara Desert. +<span class="smcap">Pax</span>."</p> + +<p>Silence followed the final transcription of the message from the +unknown—a silence broken only by Bill Hood's tremulous, half-whispered: +"He'll do it all right!"</p> + +<p>Then the German Ambassador laughed.</p> + +<p>"And thus save your ingenious nation a vast amount of trouble, Monsieur +Liban," said he.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2> + + +<p>A Tripolitan fisherman, Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad, a holy man nearly +seventy years of age, who had twice made the journey to Mecca and who +now in his declining years occupied himself with reading the Koran and +instructing his grandsons in the profession of fishing for mullet along +the reefs of the Gulf of Cabes, had anchored for the night off the +Tunisian coast, about midway between Sfax and Lesser Syrtis. The mullet +had been running thick and he was well satisfied, for by the next +evening he would surely complete his load and be able to return home to +the house of his daughter, Fatima, the wife of Abbas, the confectioner. +Her youngest son, Abdullah, a lithe lad of seventeen, was at that moment +engaged in folding their prayer rugs, which had been spread in the bow +of the falukah in order that they might have a clearer view as they +knelt toward the Holy City. Chud, their slave, was cleaning mullet in +the waist and chanting some weird song of his native land.</p> + +<p>Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad was sitting cross-legged in the stern, smoking a +hookah and watching the full moon sail slowly up above the Atlas Range +to the southwest. The wind had died down and the sea was calm, heaving +slowly with great orange-purple swells resembling watered silk. In the +west still lingered the fast-fading afterglow, above which the stars +glimmered faintly. Along the coast lights twinkled in scattered coves. +Half a mile astern the Italian cruiser <i>Fiala</i> lay slowly swinging at +anchor. From the forecastle came the smell of fried mullet. Mohammed Ben +Ali was at peace with himself and with the world, including even the +irritating Chud. The west darkened and the stars burned more +brilliantly. With the hookah gurgling softly at his feet, Mohammed +leaned back his head and gazed in silent appreciation at the wonders of +the heavens. There was Turka Kabar, the crocodile; and Menish el Tabir, +the sleeping beauty; and Rook Hamana, the leopard, and there—up there +to the far north—was a shooting star. How gracefully it shot across the +sky, leaving its wake of yellow light behind it! It was the season for +shooting stars, he recollected. In an instant it would be gone—like a +man's life! Saddened, he looked down at his hookah. When he should look +up again—if in only an instant—the star would be gone. Presently he +did look up again. But the star was still there, coming his way!</p> + +<p>He rubbed his old eyes, keen as they were from habituation to the +blinding light of the desert. Yes, the star was coming—coming fast.</p> + +<p>"Abdullah!" he called in his high-pitched voice. "Chud! Come, see the +star!"</p> + +<p>Together they watched it sweep onward.</p> + +<p>"By Allah! That is no star!" suddenly cried Abdullah. "It is an +air-flying fire chariot! I can see it with my eyes—black, and spouting +flames from behind."</p> + +<p>"Black," echoed Chud gutturally. "Black and round! Oh, Allah!" He fell +on his knees and knocked his head against the deck.</p> + +<p>The star, or whatever it was, swung in a wide circle toward the coast, +and Mohammed and Abdullah now saw that what they had taken to be a trail +of fire behind was in fact a broad beam of yellow light that pointed +diagonally earthward. It swept nearer and nearer, illuminating the whole +sky and casting a shimmering reflection upon the waves.</p> + +<p>A shrill whistle trilled across the water, accompanied by the sound of +footsteps running along the decks of the cruiser. Lights flashed. +Muffled orders were shouted.</p> + +<p>"By the beard of the Prophet!" cried Mohammed Ali. "Something is going +to happen!"</p> + +<p>The small black object from which the incandescent beam descended passed +at that moment athwart the face of the moon, and Abdullah saw that it +was round and flat like a ring. The ray of light came from a point +directly above it, passing through its aperture downward to the sea.</p> + +<p>"Boom!" The fishing-boat shook to the thunder of the <i>Fiala's</i> +eight-inch gun, and a blinding spurt of flame leaped from the cruiser's +bows. With a whining shriek a shell rose toward the moon. There was a +quick flash followed by a dull concussion. The shell had not reached a +tenth of the distance to the flying machine.</p> + +<p>And then everything happened at once. Mohammed described afterward to a +gaping multitude of dirty villagers, while he sat enthroned upon his +daughter's threshold, how the star-ship had sailed across the face of +the moon and come to a standstill above the mountains, with its beam of +yellow light pointing directly downward so that the coast could be seen +bright as day from Sfax to Cabes. He saw, he said, genii climbing up and +down on the beam. Be that as it may, he swears upon the Beard of the +Prophet that a second ray of light—of a lavender colour, like the eye +of a long-dead mullet—flashed down alongside the yellow beam. Instantly +the earth blew up like a cannon—up into the air, a thousand miles up. +It was as light as noonday. Deafened by titanic concussions he fell half +dead. The sea boiled and gave off thick clouds of steam through which +flashed dazzling discharges of lightning accompanied by a thundering, +grinding sound like a million mills. The ocean heaved spasmodically and +the air shook with a rending, ripping noise, as if Nature were bent upon +destroying her own handiwork. The glare was so dazzling that sight was +impossible. The falukah was tossed this way and that, as if caught in a +simoon, and he was rolled hither and yon in the company of Chud, +Abdullah, and the headless mullet.</p> + +<p>This earsplitting racket continued, he says, without interruption for +two days. Abdullah says it was several hours; the official report of the +<i>Fiala</i> gives it as six minutes. And then it began to rain in torrents +until he was almost drowned. A great wind arose and lashed the ocean, +and a whirlpool seized the falukah and whirled it round and round. +Darkness descended upon the earth, and in the general mess Mohammed hit +his head a terrific blow against the mast. He was sure it was but a +matter of seconds before they would be dashed to pieces by the waves. +The falukah spun like a marine top with a swift sideways motion. +Something was dragging them along, sucking them in. The <i>Fiala</i> went +careening by, her fighting masts hanging in shreds. The air was full of +falling rocks, trees, splinters, and thick clouds of dust that turned +the water yellow in the lightning flashes. The mast went crashing over +and a lemon tree descended to take its place. Great streams of lava +poured down out of the air, and masses of opaque matter plunged into the +sea all about the falukah. Scalding mud, stones, hail, fell upon the +deck.</p> + +<p>And still the fishing-boat, gyrating like a leaf, remained afloat with +its crew of half-crazed Arabs. Suffocated, stunned, scalded, petrified +with fear, they lay among the mullet while the falukah raced along in +its wild dance with death. Mohammed recalls seeing what he thought to be +a great cliff rush by close beside them. The falukah plunged over a +waterfall and was almost submerged, was caught again in a maelstrom, and +went twirling on in the blackness. They all were deathly sick, but were +too terrified to move.</p> + +<p>And then the nearer roaring ceased. The air was less congested. They +were still showered with sand, clods of earth, twigs, and pebbles, it is +true, but the genii had stopped hurling mountains at each other. The +darkness became less opaque, the water smoother. Soon they could see the +moon through the clouds of settling dust, and gradually they could +discern the stars. The falukah was rocking gently upon a broad expanse +of muddy ocean, surrounded by a yellow scum broken here and there by a +floating tree. The <i>Fiala</i> had vanished. No light shone upon the face of +the waters. But death had not overtaken them. Overcome by exhaustion and +terror Mohammed lay among the mullet, his legs entangled in the lemon +tree. Did he dream it? He cannot tell. But as he lost consciousness he +thinks he saw a star shooting toward the north.</p> + +<p>When he awoke the falukah lay motionless upon a boundless ochre sea. +They were beyond sight of land. Out of a sky slightly dim the sun burned +pitilessly down, sending warmth into their bodies and courage to their +hearts. All about them upon the water floated the evidences of the +cataclysm of the preceding night—trees, shrubs, dead birds, and the +distorted corpse of a camel. Kneeling without their prayer rugs among +the mullet they raised their voices in praise of Allah and his Prophet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2> + + +<p>Within twenty-four hours of the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas by +the Flying Ring and the consequent flooding of the Sahara, the official +gazettes and such newspapers as were still published announced that the +Powers had agreed upon an armistice and accepted a proposition of +mediation on the part of the United States looking toward permanent +peace. The news of the devastation and flood caused by this strange and +terrible dreadnought of the air created the profoundest apprehension and +caused the wildest rumours, for what had happened in Tunis was assumed +as likely to occur in London, Paris, or New York. Wireless messages +flashed the story from Algiers to Cartagena, and it was thence +disseminated throughout the civilized world by the wireless stations at +Paris, Nauen, Moscow, and Georgetown.</p> + +<p>The fact that the rotation of the earth had been retarded was still a +secret, and the appearance of the Ring had not as yet been connected +with any of the extraordinary phenomena surrounding it; but the +newspaper editorials universally agreed that whatever nation owned and +controlled this new instrument of war could dictate its own terms. It +was generally supposed that the blasting of the mountain chain of +Northern Africa had been an experiment to test and demonstrate the +powers of this new demoniacal invention, and in view of its success it +did not seem surprising that the nations had hastened to agree to an +armistice, for the Power that controlled a force capable of producing +such an extraordinary physical cataclysm could annihilate every capital, +every army, every people upon the globe or even the globe itself.</p> + +<p>The flight of the Ring machine had been observed at several different +points, beginning at Cape Race, where at about four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> the +wireless operator reported what he supposed to be a large comet +discharging earthward a diagonal shaft of orange-yellow light and moving +at incredible velocity in a southeasterly direction. During the +following day the lookout on the <i>Vira</i>, a fishguard and scout cruiser +of the North Atlantic Patrol, saw a black speck soaring among the clouds +which he took to be a lost monoplane fighting to regain the coast of +Ireland. At sundown an amateur wireless operator at St. Michael's in the +Azores noted a small comet sweeping across the sky far to the north. +This comet an hour or so later passed directly over the cities of +Lisbon, Linares, Lorca, Cartagena, and Algiers, and was clearly +observable from Badajoz, Almadén, Seville, Cordova, Grenada, Oran, +Biskra, and Tunis, and at the latter places it was easily possible for +telescopic observers to determine its size, shape, and general +construction.</p> + +<p>Daniel W. Quinn, Jr., the acting United States Consul stationed at +Biskra, who happened to be dining with the abbot of the Franciscan +monastery at Linares, sent the following account of the flight of the +Ring to the State Department at Washington, where it is now on file. +[See Vol. 27, pp. 491-498, with footnote, of Official Records of the +Consular Correspondence for 1915-1916.] After describing general +conditions in Algeria he continues:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>We had gone upon the roof in the early evening to look at the sky +through the large telescope presented to the Franciscans by Count +Philippe d'Ormay, when Father Antoine called my attention to a +comet that was apparently coming straight toward us. Instead, +however, of leaving a horizontal trail of fire behind it, this +comet or meteorite seemed to shoot an almost vertical beam of +orange light toward the earth. It produced a very strange effect on +all of us, since a normal comet or other celestial body that left a +wake of light of that sort behind it would naturally be expected to +be moving upward toward the zenith, instead of in a direction +parallel to the earth. It looked somehow as if the tail of the +comet had been bent over. As soon as it came near enough so that we +could focus the telescope upon it we discovered that it was a new +sort of flying machine. It passed over our heads at a height no +greater than ten thousand feet, if as great as that, and we could +see that it was a cylindrical ring like a doughnut or an anchor +ring, constructed, I believe, of highly polished metal, the inner +aperture being about twenty-five yards in diameter. The tube of the +cylinder looked to be about twenty feet thick, and had circular +windows or portholes that were brilliantly lighted.</p> + +<p>The strangest thing about it was that it carried a superstructure +consisting of a number of arms meeting at a point above the centre +of the opening and supporting some sort of apparatus from which the +beam of light emanated. This appliance, which we supposed to be a +gigantic searchlight, was focused down through the Ring and could +apparently be moved at will over a limited radius of about fifteen +degrees. We could not understand this, nor why the light was thrown +from outside and above instead of from inside the flying machine, +but the explanation may be found in the immense heat that must have +been required to generate the light, since it illuminated the entire +country for fifty miles or so, and we were able to read without +trouble the fine print of the abbot's rubric. This Flying Ring moved +on an even keel at the tremendous velocity of about two hundred +miles an hour. We wondered what would happen if it turned turtle, +for in that case the weight of the superstructure would have +rendered it impossible for the machine to right itself. In fact, +none of us had ever imagined any such air monster before. Beside it +a Zeppelin seemed like a wooden toy.</p> + +<p>The Ring passed over the mountains toward Cabes and within a short +time a volcanic eruption occurred that destroyed a section of the +Atlas Range. [Mr. Quinn here describes with considerable detail the +destruction of the mountains.] The next morning I found Biskra +crowded with Arabs, who reported that the ocean had poured through +the passage made by the eruption and was flooding the entire desert +as far south as the oasis of Wargla, and that it had come within +twelve miles of the walls of our own city. I at once hired a donkey +and made a personal investigation, with the result that I can report +as a fact that the entire desert east and south of Biskra is +inundated to a depth of from seven to ten feet and that the water +gives no sign of going down. The loss of life seems to have been +negligible, owing to the fact that the height of the water is not +great and that many unexpected islands have provided safety for the +caravans that were <i>in transitu</i>. These are now marooned and waiting +for assistance, which I am informed will be sent from Cabes in the +form of flat-bottomed boats fitted with motor auxiliaries.</p> + +<p>Respectfully submitted,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">D. W. Quinn, Jr.</span>,</p> + +<p>Acting U. S. Consul.</p></div> + +<p>The Italian cruiser <i>Fiala</i>, which had been carried one hundred and +eighty miles into the desert on the night of the eruption, grounded +safely on the plateau of Tasili, but the volcanic tidal wave on which +she had been swept along, having done its work, receded, leaving too +little water for the <i>Fiala's</i> draft of thirty-seven feet. Four launches +sent out in different directions to the south and east reported no sign +of land, but immense quantities of floating vegetable matter, yellow +dust, and the bodies of jackals, camels, zebras, and lions. The fifth +launch after great hardships reached the seacoast through the new +channel and arrived at Sfax after eight days.</p> + +<p>The mean tide level of the Mediterranean sank fifteen inches, and the +water showed marked discoloration for several months, while a volcanic +haze hung over Northern Africa, Sicily, Malta, and Sardinia for an even +longer period.</p> + +<p>Though many persons must have lost their lives the records are +incomplete in this respect; but there is a curious document in the +mosque at Sfax touching the effect of the Lavender Ray. It appears that +an Arab mussel-gatherer was in a small boat with his two brothers at the +time the Ring appeared above the mountains. As they looked up toward the +sky the Ray flashed over and illuminated their faces. They thought +nothing of it at the time, for almost immediately the mountains were +rent asunder and in the titanic upheaval that followed they were all +cast upon the shore, as they thought, dead men. Reaching Sfax they +reported their adventures and offered prayers in gratitude for their +extraordinary escape; but five days later all three began to suffer +excruciating torment from internal burns, the skin upon their heads and +bodies began to peel off, and they died in agony within the week.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2> + + +<p>It was but a few days thereafter that the President of the United States +received the official note from Count von Koenitz, on behalf of the +Imperial German Commissioners, to the effect that Germany would join +with the other Powers in an armistice looking toward peace and +ultimately a universal disarmament. Similar notes had already been +received by the President from France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, +Austria, Spain, and Slavia, and a multitude of the other smaller Powers +who were engaged in the war, and there was no longer any reason for +delaying the calling of an international council or diet for the purpose +of bringing about what Pax demanded as a ransom for the safety of the +globe.</p> + +<p>In the files of the State Department at Washington there is secreted the +only record of the diplomatic correspondence touching these momentous +events, and a transcript of the messages exchanged between the President +of the United States and the Arbiter of Human Destiny. They are +comparatively few in number, for Pax seemed to be satisfied to leave all +details to the Powers themselves. In the interest of saving time, +however, he made the simple suggestion that the present ambassadors +should be given plenary powers to determine the terms and conditions +upon which universal peace should be declared. All these proceedings and +the reasons therefore were kept profoundly secret. It began to look as +though the matter would be put through with characteristic Yankee +promptness. Pax's suggestion was acceded to, and the ambassadors and +ministers were given unrestricted latitude in drawing the treaty that +should abolish war forever.</p> + +<p>Now that he had been won over no one was more indefatigable than Von +Koenitz, none more fertile in suggestions. It was he who drafted with +his own hand the forty pages devoted to the creation of the commission +charged with the duty of destroying all arms, munitions, and implements +of war; and he not only acted as chairman of the preliminary drafting +committee, but was an active member of at least half a dozen other +important subcommittees. The President daily communicated the progress +of this conference of the Powers to Pax through Bill Hood, and received +daily in return a hearty if laconic approval.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I am satisfied of the sincerity of the Powers and with the +progress made. <span class="smcap">Pax</span>."</p></div> + +<p>was the ordinary type of message received. Meantime word had been sent +to all the governments that an indefinite armistice had been declared, +to commence at the end of ten days, for it had been found necessary to +allow for the time required to transmit the orders to the various fields +of military operations throughout Europe. In the interim the war +continued.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that Count von Koenitz, who now was looked upon as +the leading figure of the conference, arose and said: "Your +Excellencies, this distinguished diet will, I doubt not, presently +conclude its labours and receive not only the approval of the Powers +represented but the gratitude of the nations of the world. I voice the +sentiments of the Imperial Commissioners when I say that no Power looks +forward with greater eagerness than Germany to the accomplishment of our +purpose. But we should not forget that there is one menace to mankind +greater than that of war—namely, the lurking danger from the power of +this unknown possessor of superhuman knowledge of explosives. So far his +influence has been a benign one, but who can say when it may become +malignant? Will our labours please him? Perhaps not. Shall we agree? I +hope so, but who can tell? Will our armies lay down their arms even +after we have agreed? I believe all will go well; but is it wise for us +to refrain from jointly taking steps to ascertain the identity of this +unknown juggler with Nature, and the source of his power? It is my own +opinion, since we cannot exert any influence or control upon this +individual, that we should take whatever steps are within our grasp to +safeguard ourselves in the event that he refuses to keep faith with us. +To this end I suggest an international conference of scientific men from +all the nations to be held here in Washington coincidently with our own +meetings, with a view to determining these questions."</p> + +<p>His remarks were greeted with approval by almost all the representatives +present except Sir John Smith, who mildly hinted that such a course +might be regarded as savouring a trifle of double dealing. Should Pax +receive knowledge of the suggested conference he might question their +sincerity and view all their doings with suspicion. In a word, Sir John +believed in following a consistent course and treating Pax as a friend +and ally and not as a possible enemy.</p> + +<p>Sir John's speech, however, left the delegates unconvinced and with the +feeling that his argument was over-refined. They felt that there could +be no objection to endeavouring to ascertain the source of Pax's +power—the law of self-preservation seemed to indicate such a course as +necessary. And it had, in fact, already been discussed vaguely by +several less conspicuous delegates. Accordingly it was voted, with but +two dissenting voices,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> to summon what was known as Conference No. 2, +to be held as soon as possible, its proceedings to be conducted in +secret under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, with the +president of the Academy acting as permanent chairman. To this +conference the President appointed Thornton as one of the three +delegates from the United States.</p> + +<p>The council of the Powers having so voted, Count von Koenitz at once +transmitted, by way of Sayville, a message which in code appeared to be +addressed to a Herr Karl Heinweg, Notary, at 12<sup>BIS</sup> Bunden Strasse, +Strassburg, and related to a mortgage about to fall due upon some of Von +Koenitz's properties in Thüringen. When decoded it read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>To the Imperial Commissioners of the German Federated States:</i></p> + +<p>"I have the honour to report that acting according to your +distinguished instructions I have this day proposed an international +conference to consider the scientific problems presented by certain +recent phenomena and that my proposition was adopted. I believe that +in this way the proceedings here may be delayed indefinitely and +time thus secured to enable an expedition to be organized and +dispatched for the purpose of destroying this unknown person or +ascertaining the secret of his power, in accordance with my previous +suggestion. It would be well to send as delegates to this Conference +No. 2 several professors of physics who can by plausible arguments +and ingenious theories so confuse the matter that no determination +can be reached. I suggest Professors Gasgabelaus, of München, and +Leybach, of the Hague.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Von Koenitz</span>."</p></div> + +<p>And having thus fulfilled his duty the count took a cab to the +Metropolitan Club and there played a discreet game of billiards with +Señor Tomasso Varilla, the ex-minister from Argentina.</p> + +<p>Von Koenitz from the first had played his hand with a skill which from a +diplomatic view left nothing to be desired. The extraordinary natural +phenomena which had occurred coincidentally with the first message of +Pax to the President of the United States and the fall of Cleopatra's +Needle had been immediately observed by the scientists attached to the +Imperial and other universities throughout the German Federated States, +and had no sooner been observed than their significance had been +realized. These most industrious and thorough of all human investigators +had instantly reported the facts and their preliminary conclusions to +the Imperial Commissioners, with the recommendation that no stone be +left unturned in attempting to locate and ascertain the causes of this +disruption of the forces of nature. The Commissioners at once demanded +an exhaustive report from the faculty of the Imperial German University, +and notified Von Koenitz by cable that until further notice he must seek +in every way to delay investigation by other nations and to belittle the +importance of what had occurred, for these astute German scientists had +at once jumped to the conclusion that the acceleration of the earth's +motion had been due to some human agency possessed of a hitherto +unsuspected power.</p> + +<p>It was for this reason that at the first meeting at the White House the +Ambassador had pooh-poohed the whole matter and talked of snowstorms in +the Alps and showers of fish at Heidelburg, but with the rending of the +northern coast of Africa and the well-attested appearances of "The Ring" +he soon reached the conclusion that his wisest course was to cause such +a delay on the part of the other Powers that the inevitable race for the +secret would be won by the nation which he so astutely represented. He +reasoned, quite accurately, that the scientists of England, Russia, and +America would not remain idle in attempting to deduce the cause and +place the origin of the phenomena and the habitat of the master of the +Ring, and that the only effectual means to enable Germany to capture +this, the greatest of all prizes of war, was to befuddle the +representatives of the other nations while leaving his own unhampered in +their efforts to accomplish that which would make his countrymen, almost +without further effort, the masters of the world. Now the easiest way to +befuddle the scientists of the world was to get them into one place and +befuddle them all together, and this, after communicating with his +superiors, he had proceeded to do. He was a clever man, trained in the +devious ways of the Wilhelmstrasse, and when he set out to accomplish +something he was almost inevitably successful. Yet in spite of the +supposed alliance between Kaiser and Deity man proposes and God +disposes, and sometimes the latter uses the humblest of human +instruments in that disposition.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2> + + +<p>The Imperial German Commissioner for War, General Hans von Helmuth, was +a man of extraordinary decision and farsightedness. Sixty years of age, +he had been a member of the general staff since he was forty. He had sat +at the feet of Bismarck and Von Moltke, and during his active +participation in the management of German military affairs he had seen +but slight changes in their policy: Mass—overwhelming mass; sudden +momentous onslaught, and, above all, an attack so quick that your +adversary could not regain his feet. It worked nine times out of ten, +and when it didn't it was usually better than taking the defensive. +General von Helmuth having an approved system was to that extent +relieved of anxiety, for all he had to do was to work out details. In +this his highly efficient organization was almost automatic. He himself +was a human compendium of knowledge, and he had but to press a button +and emit a few gutturals and any information that he wanted lay +typewritten before him. Now he sat in his office smoking a Bremen cigar +and studying a huge Mercatorial projection of the Atlantic and adjacent +countries, while with the fingers of his left hand he combed his heavy +beard.</p> + +<p>From the window he looked down upon the inner fortifications of +Mainz—to which city the capital had been removed three months +before—and upon the landing stage for the scouting planes which were +constantly arriving or whirring off toward Holland or Strassburg. Across +the river, under the concealed guns of a sunken battery, stood the huge +hangars of the now useless dirigibles Z<sup>51~57</sup>. The landing stage +communicated directly by telephone with the adjutant's office, an +enormous hall filled with maps, with which Von Helmuth's private room +was connected. The adjutant himself, a worried-looking man with a bullet +head and an iron-gray moustache, stood at a table in the centre of the +hall addressing rapid-fire sentences to various persons who appeared in +the doorway, saluted, and hurried off again. Several groups were +gathered about the table and the adjutant carried on an interrupted +conversation with all of them, pausing to read the telegrams and +messages that shot out of the pneumatic tubes upon the table from the +telegraph and telephone office on the floor below.</p> + +<p>An elderly man in rather shabby clothes entered, looking about +helplessly through the thick lenses of his double spectacles, and the +adjutant turned at once from the officers about him with an "Excuse me, +gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon, Professor von Schwenitz; the general is waiting for +you," said he. "This way, please."</p> + +<p>He stalked across to the door of the inner office.</p> + +<p>"Professor von Schwenitz is here," he announced, and immediately +returned to take up the thread of his conversation in the centre of the +hall.</p> + +<p>The general turned gruffly to greet his visitor. "I have sent for you, +Professor," said he, without removing his cigar, "in order that I may +fully understand the method by which you say you have ascertained the +place of origin of the wireless messages and electrical disturbances +referred to in our communications of last week. This may be a serious +matter. The accuracy of your information is of vital importance."</p> + +<p>The professor hesitated in embarrassment, and the general scowled.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he demanded, biting off the chewed end of his cigar. "Well? This +is not a lecture room. Time is short. Out with it."</p> + +<p>"Your Excellency!" stammered the poor professor, "I—I——The +observations are so—inadequate—one cannot determine——"</p> + +<p>"What?" roared Von Helmuth. "But you said you <i>had</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Only approximately, your Excellency. One cannot be positive, but within +a reasonable distance——" He paused.</p> + +<p>"What do you call a reasonable distance? I supposed your physics was an +exact science!" retorted the general.</p> + +<p>"But the data——"</p> + +<p>"What do you call a reasonable distance?" bellowed the Imperial +Commissioner.</p> + +<p>"A hundred kilometres!" suddenly shouted the overwrought professor, +losing control of himself. "I won't be talked to this way, do you hear? +I won't! How can a man think? I'm a member of the faculty of the +Imperial University. I've been decorated twice—twice!"</p> + +<p>"Fiddlesticks!" returned the general, amused in spite of himself. "Don't +be absurd. I merely wish you to hurry. Have a cigar?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, now both ashamed and +frightened. "You must excuse me. The war has shattered my nerves. May I +smoke? Thank you."</p> + +<p>"Sit down. Take your time," said Von Helmuth, looking out and up at a +monoplane descending toward the landing in slowly lessening spirals.</p> + +<p>"You see, your Excellency," explained Von Schwenitz, "the data are +fragmentary, but I used three methods, each checking the others."</p> + +<p>"The first?" shot back the general. The monoplane had landed safely.</p> + +<p>"I compared the records of all the seismographs that had registered the +earthquake wave attendant on the electrical discharges accompanying the +great yellow auroras of July. These shocks had been felt all over the +globe, and I secured reports from Java, New Guinea, Lima, Tucson, +Greenwich, Algeria, and Moscow. These showed the wave had originated +somewhere in Eastern Labrador."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. Go on!" ordered the general.</p> + +<p>"In the second place, the violent magnetic storms produced by the helium +aurora appear to have left their mark each time upon the earth in a +permanent, if slight, deflection of the compass needle. The earth's +normal magnetic field seems to have had superimposed upon it a new field +comprised of lines of force nearly parallel to the equator. My +computations show that these great circles of magnetism centre at +approximately the same point in Labrador as that indicated by the +seismographs—about fifty-five degrees north and seventy-five degrees +west."</p> + +<p>The general seemed struck with this.</p> + +<p>"Permanent deflection, you say!" he ejaculated.</p> + +<p>"Yes, apparently permanent. Finally the barometer records told the same +story, although in less precise form. A compressional wave of air had +been started in the far north and had spread out over the earth with the +velocity of sound. Though the barographs themselves gave no indication +whence this wave had come, the variation in its intensity at different +meteorological observatories could be accounted for by the law of +inverse squares on the supposition that the explosion which started the +wave had occurred at fifty-five degrees north, seventy-five degrees +west."</p> + +<p>The professor paused and wiped his glasses. With a roar a Taube slid off +the landing stage, shot over toward the hangars, and soared upward.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" inquired the general, turning again to the chart.</p> + +<p>"That is all, your Excellency," answered Von Schwenitz.</p> + +<p>"Then you may go!" muttered the Imperial Commissioner. "If we find the +source of these disturbances where you predict you will receive the +Black Eagle."</p> + +<p>"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, his face shining with +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"And if we do <i>not</i> find it—there will be a vacancy on the faculty of +the Imperial University!" he added grimly. "Good afternoon."</p> + +<p>He pressed a button and the departing scholar was met by an orderly and +escorted from the War Bureau, while the adjutant joined Von Helmuth.</p> + +<p>"He's got him! I'm satisfied!" remarked the Commissioner. "Now outline +your plan."</p> + +<p>The bullet-headed man took up the calipers and indicated a spot on the +coast of Labrador:</p> + +<p>"Our expedition will land, subject to your approval, at Hamilton Inlet, +using the town of Rigolet as a base. By availing ourselves of the +Nascopee River and the lakes through which it flows, we can easily +penetrate to the highland where the inventor of the Ring machine has +located himself. The auxiliary brigantine <i>Sea Fox</i> is lying now under +American colours at Amsterdam, and as she can steam fifteen knots an +hour she should reach the Inlet in about ten days, passing to the north +of the Orkneys."</p> + +<p>"What force have you in mind?" inquired Von Helmuth, his cold gray eyes +narrowing.</p> + +<p>"Three full companies of sappers and miners, ten mountain howitzers, a +field battery, fifty rapid-fire standing rifles, and a complete outfit +for throwing lyddite. Of course we shall rely principally on high +explosives if it becomes necessary to use force, but what we want is a +hostage who may later become an ally."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," said the general with a laugh. "This is a scientific, +not a military, expedition."</p> + +<p>"I have asked Lieutenant Münster to report upon the necessary +equipment."</p> + +<p>Von Helmuth nodded, and the adjutant stepped to the door and called out: +"Lieutenant Münster!"</p> + +<p>A trim young man in naval uniform appeared upon the threshold and +saluted.</p> + +<p>"State what you regard as necessary as equipment for the proposed +expedition," said the general.</p> + +<p>"Twenty motor boats, each capable of towing several flat-bottomed barges +or native canoes, forty mules, a field telegraph, and also a +high-powered wireless apparatus, axes, spades, wire cables and drums, +windlasses, dynamite for blasting, and provisions for sixty days. We +shall live off the country and secure artisans and bearers from among +the natives."</p> + +<p>"When will it be possible to start?" inquired the general.</p> + +<p>"In twelve days if you give the order now," answered the young man.</p> + +<p>"Very well, you may go. And good luck to you!" he added.</p> + +<p>The young lieutenant saluted and turned abruptly on his heel.</p> + +<p>Over the parade ground a biplane was hovering, darting this way and +that, rising and falling with startling velocity.</p> + +<p>"Who's that?" inquired the general approvingly.</p> + +<p>"Schöningen," answered the adjutant.</p> + +<p>The Imperial Commissioner felt in his breast-pocket for another cigar.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Ludwig," he remarked amiably as he struck a meditative +match, "sometimes I more than half believe this 'Flying Ring' business +is all rot!"</p> + +<p>The adjutant looked pained.</p> + +<p>"And yet," continued Von Helmuth, "if Bismarck could see one of those +things," he waved his cigar toward the gyrating aeroplane, "he wouldn't +believe it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2> + + +<p>All day the International Assembly of Scientists, officially known as +Conference No. 2, had been sitting, but not progressing, in the large +lecture hall of the Smithsonian Institution, which probably had never +before seen so motley a gathering. Each nation had sent three +representatives, two professional scientists, and a lay delegate, the +latter some writer or thinker renowned in his own country for his wide +knowledge and powers of ratiocination. They had come together upon the +appointed day, although the delegates from the remoter countries had not +yet arrived, and the Committee on Credentials had already reported. +Germany had sent Gasgabelaus, Leybach, and Wilhelm Lamszus; +France—Sortell, Amand, and Buona Varilla; Great Britain—Sir William +Crookes, Sir Francis Soddy, and Mr. H. G. Wells, celebrated for his "The +War of the Worlds" and The "World Set Free," and hence supposedly just +the man to unravel a scientific mystery such as that which confronted +this galaxy of immortals.</p> + +<p>The Committee on Data, of which Thornton was a member, having been +actively at work for nearly two weeks through wireless communication +with all the observatories—seismic, meteorological, astronomical, and +otherwise—throughout the world, had reduced its findings to print, and +this matter, translated into French, German, and Italian, had already +been distributed among those present. Included in its pages was Quinn's +letter to the State Department.</p> + +<p>The roll having been called, the president of the National Academy of +Sciences made a short speech in which he outlined briefly the purpose +for which the committee had been summoned and commented to some extent +upon the character of the phenomena it was required to analyze.</p> + +<p>And then began an unending series of discussions and explanations in +French, German, Dutch, Russian, and Italian, by goggle-eyed, +bushy-whiskered, long-haired men who looked like anarchists or +sociologists and apparently had never before had an unrestricted +opportunity to air their views on anything.</p> + +<p>Thornton, listening to this hodgepodge of technicalities, was dismayed +and distrustful. These men spoke a language evidently familiar to them, +which he, although a professional scientist, found a meaningless jargon. +The whole thing seemed unreal, had a purely theoretic or literary +quality about it that made him question even their premises. In the +tainted air of the council room, listening to these little pot-bellied +<i>Professoren</i> from Amsterdam and Münich, doubt assailed him, doubt even +that the earth had changed its orbit, doubt even of his own established +formulæ and tables. Weren't they all just talking through their hats? +Wasn't it merely a game in which an elaborate system of equivalents gave +a semblance of actuality to what in fact was nothing but mind-play? Even +Wells, whose literary style he admired as one of the beauties as well as +one of the wonders of the world, had been a disappointment. He had +seemed singularly halting and unconvincing.</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew a practical man—I wish Bennie Hooker were here!" +muttered Thornton to himself. He had not seen his classmate Hooker for +twenty-six years; but that was one thing about Hooker: you knew he'd be +exactly the same—only more so—as he was when you last saw him. In +those years Bennie had become the Lawson Professor of Applied Physics at +Harvard. Thornton had read his papers on induced radiation, thermic +equilibrium, and had one of Bennie's famous Gem Home Cookers in his own +little bachelor apartment. Hooker would know. And if he didn't he'd tell +you so, without befogging the atmosphere with a lot of things he <i>did</i> +know, but that wouldn't help you in the least. Thornton clutched at the +thought of him like a falling aeronaut at a dangling rope. He'd be worth +a thousand of these dreaming lecturers, these beer-drinking visionaries! +But where could he be found? It was August, vacation time. Still, he +might be in Cambridge giving a summer course or something.</p> + +<p>At that moment Professor Gasgabelaus, the temporary chairman, a huge +man, the periphery of whose abdomen rivalled the circumference of the +"working terrestrial globe" at the other end of the platform, pounded +perspiringly with his gavel and announced that the conference would +adjourn until the following Monday morning. It was Friday afternoon, so +he had sixty hours in which to connect with Bennie, if Bennie could be +discovered. A telegram of inquiry brought no response, and he took the +midnight train to Boston, reaching Cambridge about two o'clock the +following afternoon.</p> + +<p>The air trembled with heat. Only by dodging from the shadow of one big +elm to another did he manage to reach the Appian Way—the street given +in the university catalogue as Bennie's habitat—alive. As he swung open +the little wicket gate he realized with an odd feeling that it was the +same house where Hooker had lived when a student, twenty-five years +before.</p> + +<p>"Board" was printed on a yellow, fly-blown card in the corner of the +window beside the door.</p> + +<p>Up there over the porch was the room Bennie had inhabited from '85 to +'89. He recalled vividly the night he, Thornton, had put his foot +through the lower pane. They had filled up the hole with an old golf +stocking. His eyes searched curiously for the pane. There it was, still +broken and still stuffed—it couldn't be!—with some colourless material +strangely resembling disintegrating worsted. The sun smote him in the +back of his neck and drove him to seek the relief of the porch. Had he +ever left Cambridge? Wasn't it a dream about his becoming an astronomer +and working at the Naval Observatory? And all this stuff about the earth +going on the loose? If he opened the door wouldn't he find Bennie with a +towel round his head cramming for the "exams"? For a moment he really +imagined that he was an undergraduate. Then as he fanned himself with +his straw hat he caught, on the silk band across the interior, the +words: "Smith's Famous Headwear, Washington, D.C." No, he was really an +astronomer.</p> + +<p>He shuddered in spite of the heat as he pulled the bell knob. What +ghosts would its jangle summon? The bell, however, gave no sound; in +fact the knob came off in his hand, followed by a foot or so of copper +wire. He laughed, gazing at it blankly. No one had ever used the bell in +the old days. They had simply kicked open the door and halloed: "O-o-h, +Bennie Hooker!"</p> + +<p>Thornton laid the knob on the piazza and inspected the front of the +house. The windows were thick with dust, the "yard" scraggly with weeds. +A piece of string held the latch of the gate together. Then +automatically, and without intending to do so at all, Thornton turned +the handle of the front door, assisting it coincidentally with a gentle +kick from his right toe, and found himself in the narrow cabbage-scented +hallway. The old, familiar, battered black-walnut hatrack of his student +days leaned drunkenly against the wall—Thornton knew one of its back +legs was missing—and on the imitation marble slab was a telegram +addressed to "Professor Benjamin Hooker." And also, instinctively, +Thornton lifted up his adult voice and yelled:</p> + +<p>"O-o-h, ye-ay! Bennie Hooker!"</p> + +<p>The volume of his own sound startled him. Instantly he saw the +ridiculousness of it—he, the senior astronomer at the Naval +Observatory, yelling like that——</p> + +<p>"O-o-h, ye-ay!" came in smothered tones from above.</p> + +<p>Thornton bounded up the stairs, two, three steps at a time, and pounded +on the old door over the porch.</p> + +<p>"Go away!" came back the voice of Bennie Hooker. "Don't want any lunch!"</p> + +<p>Thornton continued to bang on the door while Professor Hooker wrathfully +besought the intruder to depart before he took active measures. There +was the cracking of glass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, damn!" came from inside.</p> + +<p>Thornton rattled the knob and kicked. Somebody haltingly crossed the +room, the key turned, and Prof. Bennie Hooker opened the door.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he demanded, scowling over his thick spectacles.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Bennie!" said Thornton, holding out his hand.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Buck!" returned Hooker. "Come in. I thought it was that +confounded Ethiopian."</p> + +<p>As far as Thornton could see, it was the same old room, only now crammed +with books and pamphlets and crowded with tables of instruments. Hooker, +clad in sneakers, white ducks, and an undershirt, was smoking a small +"T. D." pipe.</p> + +<p>"Where on earth did you come from?" he inquired good-naturedly.</p> + +<p>"Washington," answered Thornton, and something told him that this was +the real thing—the "goods"—that his journey would be repaid.</p> + +<p>Hooker waved the "T. D." in a general sort of way toward some +broken-down horsehair armchairs and an empty crate.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, won't you?" he said, as if he had seen his guest only the day +before. He looked vaguely about for something that Thornton might smoke, +then seated himself on a cluttered bench holding a number of retorts, +beside which flamed an oxyacetylene blowpipe. He was a wizened little +chap, with scrawny neck and protruding Adam's apple. His long hair gave +no evidence of the use of the comb, and his hands were the hands of +Esau. He had an alertness that suggested a robin, but at the same time +gave the impression that he looked through things rather than at them. +On the mantel was a saucer containing the fast oxidizing cores of +several apples and a half-eaten box of oatmeal biscuits.</p> + +<p>"My Lord! This is an untidy hole! No more order than when you were an +undergrad!" exclaimed Thornton, looking about him in amused horror.</p> + +<p>"Order?" returned Bennie indignantly. "Everything's in perfect order! +This chair is filled with the letters I <i>have</i> already answered; this +chair with the letters I've <i>not</i> answered; and this chair with the +letters I shall <i>never</i> answer!"</p> + +<p>Thornton took a seat on the crate, laughing. It was the same old Bennie!</p> + +<p>"You're an incorrigible!" he sighed despairingly.</p> + +<p>"Well, you're a star gazer, aren't you?" inquired Hooker, relighting his +pipe. "Some one told me so—I forget who. You must have a lot of +interesting problems. They tell me that new planet of yours is full of +uranium."</p> + +<p>Thornton laughed. "You mustn't believe all that you read in the papers. +What are you working at particularly?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, radium and thermic induction mostly," answered Hooker. "And when I +want a rest I take a crack at the fourth dimension—spacial curvature's +my hobby. But I'm always working at radio stuff. That's where the big +things are going to be pulled off, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," answered Thornton. He wondered if Hooker ever saw a +paper, how long since he had been out of the house. "By the way, did you +know Berlin had been taken?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Berlin—in Germany, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, by the Russians."</p> + +<p>"No! Has it?" inquired Hooker with politeness. "Oh, I think some one did +mention it."</p> + +<p>Thornton fumbled for a cigarette and Bennie handed him a match. They +seemed to have extraordinarily little to say for men who hadn't seen +each other for twenty-six years.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," went on the astronomer, "you think it's deuced funny my +dropping in casually this way after all this time, but the fact is I +came on purpose. I want to get some information from you straight."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead!" said Bennie. "What's it about?"</p> + +<p>"Well, in a word," answered Thornton, "the earth's nearly a quarter of +an hour behind time."</p> + +<p>Hooker received this announcement with a polite interest but no +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"That's a how-de-do!" he remarked. "What's done it?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I want you to tell <i>me</i>," said Thornton sternly. "What +<i>could</i> do it?"</p> + +<p>Hooker unlaced his legs and strolled over to the mantel.</p> + +<p>"Have a cracker?" he asked, helping himself. Then he picked up a piece +of wood and began whittling. "I suppose there's the devil to pay?" he +suggested. "Things upset and so on? Atmospheric changes? When did it +happen?"</p> + +<p>"About three weeks ago. Then there's this Sahara business."</p> + +<p>"What Sahara business?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't you heard?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Hooker rather impatiently. "I haven't heard anything. I +haven't any time to read the papers; I'm too busy. My thermic inductor +transformers melted last week and I'm all in the air. What was it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind now," said Thornton hurriedly, perceiving that Hooker's +ignorance was an added asset. He'd get his science pure, uncontaminated +by disturbing questions of fact. "How about the earth's losing that +quarter of an hour?"</p> + +<p>"Of course she's off her orbit," remarked Hooker in a detached way. "And +you want to know what's done it? Don't blame you. I suppose you've gone +into the possibilities of stellar attraction."</p> + +<p>"Discount that!" ordered Thornton. "What I want to know is whether it +could happen from the inside?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" inquired Hooker. "A general shift in the mass would do it. So +would the mere application of force at the proper point."</p> + +<p>"It never happened before."</p> + +<p>"Of course not. Neither had seedless oranges until Burbank came along," +said Hooker.</p> + +<p>"Do you regard it as possible by any human agency?" inquired Thornton.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" repeated Hooker. "All you need is the energy. And it's lying +all round if you could only get at it. That's just what I'm working at +now. Radium, uranium, thorium, actinium—all the radioactive +elements—are, as everybody knows, continually disintegrating, +discharging the enormous energy that is imprisoned in their molecules. +It may take generations, epochs, centuries, for them to get rid of it +and transform themselves into other substances, but they will inevitably +do so eventually. They're doing with more or less of a rush what all the +elements are doing at their leisure. A single ounce of uranium contains +about the same amount of energy that could be produced by the combustion +of ten tons of coal—but it won't let the energy go. Instead it holds on +to it, and the energy leaks slowly, almost imperceptibly, away, like +water from a big reservoir tapped only by a tiny pipe. 'Atomic energy' +Rutherford calls it. Every element, every substance, has its ready to be +touched off and put to use. The chap who can find out how to release +that energy all at once will revolutionize the civilized world. It will +be like the discovery that water could be turned into steam and made to +work for us—multiplied a million times. If, instead of that energy just +oozing away and the uranium disintegrating infinitesimally each year, it +could be exploded at a given moment you could drive an ocean liner with +a handful of it. You could make the old globe stagger round and turn +upside down! Mankind could just lay off and take a holiday. But <i>how</i>?"</p> + +<p>Bennie enthusiastically waved his pipe at Thornton.</p> + +<p>"How! That's the question. Everybody's known about the possibilities, +for Soddy wrote a book about it; but nobody's ever suggested where the +key could be found to unlock that treasure-house of energy. Some chap +made up a novel once and pretended it was done, but he didn't say <i>how</i>. +But"—and he lowered his voice passionately—"I'm working at it, +and—and—I've nearly—nearly got it."</p> + +<p>Thornton, infected by his friend's excitement, leaned forward in his +chair.</p> + +<p>"Yes—nearly. If only my transformers hadn't melted! You see I got the +idea from Savaroff, who noticed that the activity of radium and other +elements wasn't constant, but varied with the degree of solar activity, +reaching its maximum at the periods when the sun spots were most +numerous. In other words, he's shown that the breakdown of the atoms of +radium and the other radioactive elements isn't spontaneous, as Soddy +and others had thought, but is due to the action of certain extremely +penetrating rays given out by the sun. These particular rays are the +result of the enormous temperature of the solar atmosphere, and their +effect upon radioactive substances is analogous to that of the +detonating cap upon dynamite. No one has been able to produce these rays +in the laboratory, although Hempel has suspected sometimes that traces +of them appeared in the radiations from powerful electric sparks. +Everything came to a halt until Hiroshito discovered thermic induction, +and we were able to elevate temperature almost indefinitely through a +process similar to the induction of high electric potentials by means of +transformers and the Ruhmkorff coil.</p> + +<p>"Hiroshito wasn't looking for a detonating ray and didn't have time to +bother with it, but I started a series of experiments with that end in +view. I got close—I am close, but the trouble has been to control the +forces set in motion, for the rapid rise in temperature has always +destroyed the apparatus."</p> + +<p>Thornton whistled. "And when you succeed?" he asked in a whisper.</p> + +<p>Hooker's face was transfigured.</p> + +<p>"When I succeed I shall control the world," he cried, and his voice +trembled. "But the damn thing either melts or explodes," he added with a +tinge of indignation.</p> + +<p>"You know about Hiroshito's experiments, of course; he used a quartz +bulb containing a mixture of neon gas and the vapour of mercury, placed +at the centre of a coil of silver wire carrying a big oscillatory +current. This induced a ring discharge in the bulb, and the temperature +of the vapour mixture rose until the bulb melted. He calculated that the +temperature of that part of the vapour which carried the current was +over 6,000°. You see, the ring discharge is not in contact with the wall +of the bulb, and can consequently be much hotter. It's like this." Here +Bennie drew with a burnt match on the back of an envelope a diagram of +something which resembled a doughnut in a chianti flask.</p> + +<p>Thornton scratched his head. "Yes," he said, "but that's an old +principle, isn't it? Why does Hiro—what's his name—call it—thermic +induction?"</p> + +<p>"Oriental imagination, probably," replied Bennie. "Hiroshito observed +that a sudden increase in the temperature of the discharge occurred at +the moment when the silver coil of his transformer became white hot, +which he explained by some mysterious inductive action of the heat +vibrations. I don't follow him at all. His theory's probably all wrong, +but he delivered the goods. He gave me the right tip, even if I have got +him lashed to the mast now. I use a tungsten spiral in a nitrogen +atmosphere in my transformer and replace the quartz bulb with a capsule +of zircorundum."</p> + +<p>"A capsule of what?" asked Thornton, whose chemistry was mid-Victorian.</p> + +<p>"Zircorundum," said Bennie, groping around in a drawer of his work +table. "It's an absolute nonconductor of heat. Look here, just stick +your finger in that." He held out to Thornton what appeared to be a +small test tube of black glass. Thornton, with a slight moral +hesitation, did as he was told, and Bennie, whistling, picked up the +oxyacetylene blowpipe, regarding it somewhat as a dog fancier might gaze +at an exceptionally fine pup. "Hold up your finger," said he to the +astronomer. "That's right—like that!"</p> + +<p>Thrusting the blowpipe forward, he allowed the hissing blue-white flame +to wrap itself round the outer wall of the tube—a flame which Thornton +knew could melt its way through a block of steel—but the astronomer +felt no sensation of heat, although he not unnaturally expected the +member to be incinerated.</p> + +<p>"Queer, eh?" said Bennie. "Absolute insulation! Beats the thermos +bottle, and requires no vacuum. It isn't quite what I want though, +because the disintegrating rays which the ring discharge gives out break +down the zirconium, which isn't an end-product of radioactivity. The +pressure in the capsule rises, due to the liberation of helium, and it +blows up, and the landlady or the police come up and bother me."</p> + +<p>Thornton was scrutinizing Bennie's rough diagram. "This ring discharge," +he meditated; "I wonder if it isn't something like a sunspot. You know +the spots are electron vortices with strong magnetic fields. I'll bet +you the Savaroff disintegrating rays come from the spots and not from +the whole surface of the sun!"</p> + +<p>"My word," said Bennie, with a grin of delight, "you occasionally have +an illuminating idea, even if you are a musty astronomer. I always +thought you were a sort of calculating machine, who slept on a logarithm +table. I owe you two drinks for that suggestion, and to scare a thirst +into you I'll show you an experiment that no living human being has ever +seen before. I can't make very powerful disintegrating rays yet, but I +can break down uranium, which is the easiest of all. Later on I'll be +able to disintegrate anything, if I have luck—that is, anything except +end-products. Then you'll see things fly. But, for the present, just +this." He picked up a thin plate of white metal. "This is the metal +we're going to attack, uranium—the parent of radium—and the whole +radioactive series, ending with the end-product lead."</p> + +<p>He hung the plate by two fine wires fastened to its corners, and +adjusted a coil of wire opposite its centre, while within the coil he +slipped a small black capsule.</p> + +<p>"This is the best we can do now," he said. "The capsule is made of +zircorundum, and we shall get only a trace of the disintegrating rays +before it blows up. But you'll see 'em, or, rather, you'll see the +lavender phosphorescence of the air through which they pass."</p> + +<p>He arranged a thick slab of plate glass between Thornton and the thermic +transformer, and stepping to the wall closed a switch. An oscillatory +spark discharge started off with a roar in a closed box, and the coil of +wire became white hot.</p> + +<p>"Watch the plate!" shouted Bennie.</p> + +<p>And Thornton watched.</p> + +<p>For ten or fifteen seconds nothing happened, and then a faint beam of +pale lavender light shot out from the capsule, and the metal plate swung +away from the incandescent coil as if blown by a gentle breeze.</p> + +<p>Almost instantly there was a loud report and a blinding flash of yellow +light so brilliant that for the next instant or two to Thornton's eyes +the room seemed dark. Slowly the afternoon light regained its normal +quality. Bennie relit his pipe unconcernedly.</p> + +<p>"That's the germ of the idea," he said between puffs. "That capsule +contains a mixture of vapours that give out disintegrating rays when the +temperature is raised by thermic induction above six thousand. Most of +'em are stopped by the zirconium atoms in the capsule, which break down +and liberate helium; and the temperature rises in the capsule until it +explodes, as you saw just now, with a flash of yellow helium light. The +rays that get out strike the uranium plate and cause the surface layer +of molecules to disintegrate, their products being driven off by the +atomic explosions with a velocity about equal to that of light, and it's +the recoil that deflects and swings the plate. The amount of uranium +decomposed in this experiment couldn't be detected by the most delicate +balance—small mass, but enormous velocity. See?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand," answered Thornton. "It's the old, 'momentum equals +mass times velocity,' business we had in mechanics."</p> + +<p>"Of course this is only a toy experiment," Bennie continued. "It is what +the dancing pithballs of Franklin's time were to the multipolar, +high-frequency dynamo. But if we could control this force and handle it +on a large scale we could do anything with it—destroy the world, drive +a car against gravity off into space, shift the axis of the earth +perhaps!"</p> + +<p>It came to Thornton as he sat there, cigarette in hand, that poor Bennie +Hooker was going to receive the disappointment of his life. Within the +next five minutes his dreams would be dashed to earth, for he would +learn that another had stepped down to the pool of discovery before him. +For how many years, he wondered, had Bennie toiled to produce his +mysterious ray that should break down the atom and release the store of +energy that the genii of Nature had concealed there. And now Thornton +must tell him that all his efforts had gone for nothing!</p> + +<p>"And you believe that any one who could generate a ray such as you +describe could control the motion of the earth?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Of course, certainly," answered Hooker. "He could either disintegrate +such huge quantities of matter that the mass of the earth would be +shifted and its polar axis be changed, or if radioactive +substances—pitchblende, for example—lay exposed upon the earth's +surface he could cause them to discharge their helium and other products +at such an enormous velocity that the recoil or reaction would +accelerate or retard the motion of the globe. It would be quite +feasible, quite simple—all one would need would be the disintegrating +ray."</p> + +<p>And then Thornton told Hooker of the flight of the giant Ring machine +from the north and the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas through the +apparent instrumentality of a ray of lavender light. Hooker's face +turned slightly pale and his unshaven mouth tightened. Then a smile of +exaltation illuminated his features.</p> + +<p>"He's done it!" he cried joyously. "He's done it on an engineering +scale. We pure-science dreamers turn up our noses at the engineers, but +I tell you the improvements in the apparatus part of the game come when +there is a big commercial demand for a thing and the engineering chaps +take hold of it. But <i>who</i> is he and <i>where</i> is he? I must get to him. I +don't suppose I can teach him much, but I've got a magnificent +experiment that we can try together."</p> + +<p>He turned to a littered writing-table and poked among the papers that +lay there.</p> + +<p>"You see," he explained excitedly, "if there is anything in the quantum +theory——Oh! but you don't care about that. The point is where <i>is</i> the +chap?"</p> + +<p>And so Thornton had to begin at the beginning and tell Hooker all about +the mysterious messages and the phenomena that accompanied them. He +enlarged upon Pax's benignant intentions and the great problems +presented by the proposed interference of the United States Government +in Continental affairs, but Bennie swept them aside. The great thing, to +his mind, was to find and get into communication with Pax.</p> + +<p>"Ah! How he must feel! The greatest achievement of all time!" cried +Hooker radiantly. "How ecstatically happy! Earth blossoming like the +rose! Well-watered valleys where deserts were before. War abolished, +poverty, disease! Who can it be? Curie? No; she's bottled in Paris. +Posky, Langham, Varanelli—it can't be any one of those fellows. It +beats me! Some Hindoo or Jap maybe, but never Hiroshito! Now we must get +to him right away. So much to talk over." He walked round the room, +blundering into things, dizzy with the thought that his great dream had +come true. Suddenly he swept everything off the table on to the floor +and kicked his heels in the air.</p> + +<p>"Hooray!" he shouted, dancing round the room like a freshman. "Hooray! +Now I can take a holiday. And come to think of it, I'm as hungry as a +brontosaurus!"</p> + +<p>That night Thornton returned to Washington and was at the White House by +nine o'clock the following day.</p> + +<p>"It's all straight," he told the President. "The honestest man in the +United States has said so."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2> + + +<p>The moon rose over sleeping Paris, silvering the silent reaches of the +Seine, flooding the deserted streets with mellow light, yet gently +retouching all the disfigurements of the siege. No lights illuminated +the cafés, no taxis dashed along the boulevards, no crowds loitered in +the Place de l'Opéra or the Place Vendôme. Yet save for these facts it +might have been the Paris of old time, unvisited by hunger, misery, or +death. The curfew had sounded. Every citizen had long since gone within, +extinguished his lights, and locked his door. Safe in the knowledge that +the Germans' second advance had been finally met and effectually blocked +sixty miles outside the walls, and that an armistice had been declared +to go into effect at midnight, Paris slumbered peacefully.</p> + +<p>Beyond the pellet-strewn fields and glacis of the second line of defence +the invader, after a series of terrific onslaughts, had paused, +retreated a few miles and intrenched himself, there to wait until the +starving city should capitulate. For four months he had waited, yet +Paris gave no sign of surrendering. On the contrary, it seemed to have +some mysterious means of self-support, and the war office, in daily +communication with London, reported that it could withstand the +investment for an indefinite period. Meantime the Germans reintrenched +themselves, built forts of their own upon which they mounted the siege +guns intended for the walls, and constructed an impregnable line of +entanglements, redoubts, and defences, which rendered it impossible for +any army outside the city to come to its relief.</p> + +<p>So rose the moon, turning white the millions of slate roofs, gilding the +traceries of the towers of Notre Dame, dimming the searchlights which, +like the antennæ of gigantic fireflies, constantly played round the city +from the summit of the Eiffel Tower. So slept Paris, confident that no +crash of descending bombs would shatter the blue vault of the starlit +sky or rend the habitations in which lay two millions of human beings, +assured that the sun would rise through the gray mists of the Seine upon +the ancient beauties of the Tuilleries and the Louvre unmarred by the +enemy's projectiles, and that its citizens could pass freely along its +boulevards without menace of death from flying missiles. For no shell +could be hurled a distance of sixty miles, and an armistice had been +declared.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Behind a small hill within the German fortifications a group of officers +stood in the moonlight, examining what looked superficially like the +hangar of a small dirigible. Nestling behind the hill it cast a black +rectangular shadow upon the trampled sand of the redoubt. A score of +artisans were busy filling a deep trench through which a huge pipe led +off somewhere—a sort of deadly plumbing, for the house sheltered a +monster cannon reënforced by jackets of lead and steel, the whole +encased in a cooling apparatus of intricate manufacture. From the open +end of the house the cylindrical barrel of the gigantic engine of war +raised itself into the air at an angle of forty degrees, and from the +muzzle to the ground below it was a drop of over eighty feet. On a track +running off to the north rested the projectiles side by side, resembling +in the dim light a row of steam boilers in the yard of a locomotive +factory.</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked one of the officers, turning to the only one of his +companions not in uniform. "'Thanatos' is ready."</p> + +<p>The man addressed was Von Heckmann, the most famous inventor of military +ordnance in the world, already four times decorated for his services to +the Emperor.</p> + +<p>"The labour of nine years!" he answered with emotion. "Nine long years +of self-denial and unremitting study! But to-night I shall be repaid, +repaid a thousand times."</p> + +<p>The officers shook hands with him one after the other, and the group +broke up; the men who were filling the trench completed their labours +and departed; and Von Heckmann and the major-general of artillery alone +remained, except for the sentries beside the gun. The night was balmy +and the moon rode in a cloudless sky high above the hill. They crossed +the enclosure, followed by the two sentinels, and entering a passage +reached the outer wall of the redoubt, which was in turn closed and +locked. Here the sentries remained, but Von Heckmann and the general +continued on behind the fortifications for some distance.</p> + +<p>"Well, shall we start the ball?" asked the general, laying his hand on +Von Heckmann's shoulder. But the inventor found it so hard to master his +emotion that he could only nod his head. Yet the ball to which the +general alluded was the discharging of a fiendish war machine toward an +unsuspecting and harmless city alive with sleeping people, and the +emotion of the inventor was due to the fact that he had devised and +completed the most atrocious engine of death ever conceived by the mind +of man—the Relay Gun. Horrible as is the thought, this otherwise normal +man had devoted nine whole years to the problem of how to destroy human +life at a distance of a hundred kilometres, and at last he had been +successful, and an emperor had placed with his own divinely appointed +hands a ribbon over the spot beneath which his heart should have been.</p> + +<p>The projectile of this diabolical invention was ninety-five centimetres +in diameter, and was itself a rifled mortar, which in full flight, +twenty miles from the gun and at the top of its trajectory, exploded in +mid-air, hurling forward its contained projectile with an additional +velocity of three thousand feet per second. This process repeated +itself, the final or core bomb, weighing over three hundred pounds and +filled with lyddite, reaching its mark one minute and thirty-five +seconds after the firing of the gun. This crowning example of the human +mind's destructive ingenuity had cost the German Government five million +marks and had required three years for its construction, and by no means +the least of its devilish capacities was that of automatically reloading +and firing itself at the interval of every ten seconds, its muzzle +rising, falling, or veering slightly from side to side with each +discharge, thus causing the shells to fall at wide distances. The +poisonous nature of the immense volumes of gas poured out by the +mastodon when in action necessitated the withdrawal of its crew to a +safe distance. But once set in motion it needed no attendant. It had +been tested by a preliminary shot the day before, which had been +directed to a point several miles outside the walls of Paris, the effect +of which had been observed and reported by high-flying German aeroplanes +equipped with wireless. Everything was ready for the holocaust.</p> + +<p>Von Heckmann and the general of artillery continued to make their way +through the intrenchments and other fortifications, until at a distance +of about a quarter of a mile from the redoubt where they had left the +Relay Gun they arrived at a small whitewashed cottage.</p> + +<p>"I have invited a few of my staff to join us," said the general to the +inventor, "in order that they may in years to come describe to their +children and their grandchildren this, the most momentous occasion in +the history of warfare."</p> + +<p>They turned the corner of the cottage and came upon a group of officers +standing by the wooden gate of the cottage, all of whom saluted at their +approach.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, gentlemen," said the general. "I beg to present the +members of my staff," turning to Von Heckmann.</p> + +<p>The officers stood back while the general led the way into the cottage, +the lower floor of which consisted of but a single room, used by the +recent tenants as a kitchen, dining-room, and living-room. At one end of +a long table, constructed by the regimental carpenter, supper had been +laid, and a tub filled with ice contained a dozen or more quarts of +champagne. Two orderlies stood behind the table, at the other end of +which was affixed a small brass switch connected with the redoubt and +controlled by a spring and button. The windows of the cottage were open, +and through them poured the light of the full moon, dimming the +flickering light of the candles upon the table.</p> + +<p>In spite of the champagne, the supper, and the boxes of cigars and +cigarettes, an atmosphere of solemnity was distinctly perceptible. It +was as if each one of these officers, hardened to human suffering by a +lifetime of discipline and active service, to say nothing of the years +of horror through which they had just passed, could not but feel that in +the last analysis the hurling upon an unsuspecting city of a rain of +projectiles containing the highest explosive known to warfare, at a +distance three times greater than that heretofore supposed to be +possible to science, and the ensuing annihilation of its inhabitants, +was something less for congratulation and applause than for sorrow and +regret. The officers, who had joked each other outside the gate, became +singularly quiet as they entered the cottage and gathered round the +table where Von Heckmann and the general had taken their stand by the +instrument. Utter silence fell upon the group. The mercury of their +spirits dropped from summer heat to below freezing. What was this thing +which they were about to do?</p> + +<p>Through the windows, at a distance of four hundred yards, the pounding +of the machinery which flooded the water jacket of the Relay Gun was +distinctly audible in the stillness of the night. The pressure of a +finger—a little finger—upon that electric button was all that was +necessary to start the torrent of iron and high explosives toward Paris. +By the time the first shell would reach its mark nine more would be on +their way, stretched across the midnight sky at intervals of less than +eight miles. And once started the stream would continue uninterrupted +for two hours. The fascinated eyes of all the officers fastened +themselves upon the key. None spoke.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, gentlemen!" exclaimed the general brusquely, "what is the +matter with you? You act as if you were at a funeral! Hans," turning to +the orderly, "open the champagne there. Fill the glasses. Bumpers all, +gentlemen, for the greatest inventor of all times, Herr von Heckmann, +the inventor of the Relay Gun!"</p> + +<p>The orderly sprang forward and hastily commenced uncorking bottles, +while Von Heckmann turned away to the window.</p> + +<p>"Here, this won't do, Schelling! You must liven things up a bit!" +continued the general to one of the officers. "This is a great occasion +for all of us! Give me that bottle." He seized a magnum of champagne +from the orderly and commenced pouring out the foaming liquid into the +glasses beside the plates. Schelling made a feeble attempt at a joke at +which the officers laughed loudly, for the general was a martinet and +had to be humoured.</p> + +<p>"Now, then," called out the general as he glanced toward the window, +"Herr von Heckmann, we are going to drink your health! Officers of the +First Artillery, I give you a toast—a toast which you will all remember +to your dying day! Bumpers, gentlemen! No heel taps! I give you the +health of 'Thanatos'—the leviathan of artillery, the winged bearer of +death and destruction—and of its inventor, Herr von Heckmann. Bumpers, +gentlemen!" The general slapped Von Heckmann upon the shoulder and +drained his glass.</p> + +<p>"'Thanatos!' Von Heckmann!" shouted the officers. And with one accord +they dashed their goblets to the stone flagging upon which they stood.</p> + +<p>"And now, my dear inventor," said the general, "to you belongs the +honour of arousing 'Thanatos' into activity. Are you ready, gentlemen? I +warn you that when 'Thanatos' snores the rafters will ring."</p> + +<p>Von Heckmann had stood with bowed head while the officers had drunk his +health, and he now hesitatingly turned toward the little brass switch +with its button of black rubber that glistened so innocently in the +candlelight. His right hand trembled. He dashed the back of his left +across his eyes. The general took out a large silver watch from his +pocket. "Fifty-nine minutes past eleven," he announced. "At one minute +past twelve Paris will be disembowelled. Put your finger on the button, +my friend. Let us start the ball rolling."</p> + +<p>Von Heckmann cast a glance almost of disquietude upon the faces of the +officers who were leaning over the table in the intensity of their +excitement. His elation, his exaltation, had passed from him. He seemed +overwhelmed at the momentousness of the act which he was about to +perform. Slowly his index finger crept toward the button and hovered +half suspended over it. He pressed his lips together and was about to +exert the pressure required to transmit the current of electricity to +the discharging apparatus when unexpectedly there echoed through the +night the sharp click of a horse's hoofs coming at a gallop down the +village street. The group turned expectantly to the doorway.</p> + +<p>An officer dressed in the uniform of an aide-de-camp of artillery +entered abruptly, saluted, and produced from the inside pocket of his +jacket a sealed envelope which he handed to the general. The interest of +the officers suddenly centred upon the contents of the envelope. The +general grumbled an oath at the interruption, tore open the missive, and +held the single sheet which it contained to the candlelight.</p> + +<p>"An armistice!" he cried disgustedly. His eye glanced rapidly over the +page.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>To the Major-General commanding the First Division of Artillery, +Army of the Meuse:</i></p> + +<p>"An armistice has been declared, to commence at midnight, pending +negotiations for peace. You will see that no acts of hostility +occur until you receive notice that war is to be resumed.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Von Helmuth</span>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Imperial Commissioner for War."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>The officers broke into exclamations of impatience as the general +crumpled the missive in his hand and cast it upon the floor.</p> + +<p>"<i>Donnerwetter!</i>" he shouted. "Why were we so slow? Curse the +armistice!" He glanced at his watch. It already pointed to after +midnight. His face turned red and the veins in his forehead swelled.</p> + +<p>"To hell with peace!" he bellowed, turning back his watch until the +minute hand pointed to five minutes to twelve. "To hell with peace, I +say! Press the button, Von Heckmann!"</p> + +<p>But in spite of the agony of disappointment which he now acutely +experienced, Von Heckmann did not fire. Sixty years of German respect +for orders held him in a viselike grip and paralyzed his arm.</p> + +<p>"I can't," he muttered. "I can't."</p> + +<p>The general seemed to have gone mad. Thrusting Von Heckmann out of the +way, he threw himself into a chair at the end of the table and with a +snarl pressed the black handle of the key.</p> + +<p>The officers gasped. Hardened as they were to the necessities of war, no +act of insubordination like the present had ever occurred within their +experience. Yet they must all uphold the general; they must all swear +that the gun was fired before midnight. The key clicked and a blue bead +snapped at the switch. They held their breaths, looking through the +window to the west.</p> + +<p>At first the night remained still. Only the chirp of the crickets and +the fretting of the aide-de-camp's horse outside the cottage could be +heard. Then, like the grating of a coffee mill in a distant kitchen when +one is just waking out of a sound sleep, they heard the faint, smothered +whir of machinery, a sharper metallic ring of steel against steel +followed by a gigantic detonation which shook the ground upon which the +cottage stood and overthrew every glass upon the table. With a roar like +the fall of a skyscraper the first shell hurled itself into the night. +Half terrified the officers gripped their chairs, waiting for the second +discharge. The reverberation was still echoing among the hills when the +second detonation occurred, shortly followed by the third and fourth. +Then, in intervals between the crashing explosions, a distant rumbling +growl, followed by a shuddering of the air, as if the night were +frightened, came up out of the west toward Paris, showing that the +projectiles were at the top of their flight and going into action. A +lake of yellow smoke formed in the pocket behind the hill where lay the +redoubt in which "Thanatos" was snoring.</p> + +<p>On the great race track of Longchamps, in the Bois de Boulogne, the vast +herd of cows, sheep, horses, and goats, collected together by the city +government of Paris and attended by fifty or sixty shepherds especially +imported from <i>les Landes</i>, had long since ceased to browse and had +settled themselves down into the profound slumber of the animal world, +broken only by an occasional bleating or the restless whinnying of a +stallion. On the race course proper, in front of the grandstand and +between it and the judge's box, four of these shepherds had built a +small fire and by its light were throwing dice for coppers. They were +having an easy time of it, these shepherds, for their flocks did not +wander, and all that they had to do was to see that the animals were +properly driven to such parts of the Bois as would afford proper +nourishment.</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>mes enfants</i>," exclaimed old Adrian Bannalec, pulling a +turnip-shaped watch from beneath his blouse and holding it up to the +firelight, "it's twelve o'clock and time to turn in. But what do you say +to a cup of chocolate first?"</p> + +<p>The others greeted the suggestion with approval, and going somewhere +underneath the grandstand, Bannalec produced a pot filled with water, +which he suspended with much dexterity over the fire upon the end of a +pointed stick. The water began to boil almost immediately, and they were +on the point of breaking their chocolate into it when, from what +appeared to be an immense distance, through the air there came a curious +rumble.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" muttered Bannalec. The sound was followed within a few +seconds by another, and after a similar interval by a third and fourth.</p> + +<p>"There was going to be an armistice," suggested one of the younger +herdsmen. He had hardly spoken before a much louder and apparently +nearer detonation occurred.</p> + +<p>"That must be one of our guns," said old Adrian proudly. "Do you hear +how much louder it speaks than those of the Germans?"</p> + +<p>Other discharges now followed in rapid succession, some fainter, some +much louder. And then somewhere in the sky they saw a flash of flame, +followed by a thunderous concussion which rattled the grandstand, and a +great fiery serpent came soaring through the heavens toward Paris. Each +moment it grew larger, until it seemed to be dropping straight toward +them out of the sky, leaving a trail of sparks behind it.</p> + +<p>"It's coming our way," chattered Adrian.</p> + +<p>"God have mercy upon us!" murmured the others.</p> + +<p>Rigid with fear, they stood staring with open mouths at the shell that +seemed to have selected them for the object of its flight.</p> + +<p>"God have mercy on our souls!" repeated Adrian after the others.</p> + +<p>Then there came a light like that of a million suns....</p> + +<p>Alas for the wives and children of the herdsmen! And alas for the herds! +But better that the eight core bombs projected by "Thanatos" through the +midnight sky toward Paris should have torn the foliage of the Bois, +destroyed the grandstands of Auteuil and Longchamps, with sixteen +hundred innocent sheep and cattle, than that they should have sought +their victims among the crowded streets of the inner city. Lucky for +Paris that the Relay Gun had been sighted so as to sweep the metropolis +from the west to the east, and that though each shell approached nearer +to the walls than its preceding brother, none reached the ramparts. For +with the discharge of the eighth shell and the explosion of the first +core bomb filled with lyddite among the sleeping animals huddled on the +turf in front of the grandstands, something happened which the poor +shepherds did not see.</p> + +<p>The watchers in the Eiffel Tower, seeing the heavens with their +searchlights for German planes and German dirigibles, saw the first core +bomb bore through the sky from the direction of Verdun, followed by its +seven comrades, and saw each bomb explode in the Bois below. But as the +first shell shattered the stillness of the night and spread its +sulphureous and death-dealing fumes among the helpless cattle, the +watchers on the Tower saw a vast light burst skyward in the far-distant +east.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Two miles up the road from the village of Champaubert, Karl Biedenkopf, +a native of Hesse-Nassau and a private of artillery, was doing picket +duty. The moonlight turned the broad highroad toward Épernay into a +gleaming white boulevard down which he could see, it seemed to him, for +miles. The air was soft and balmy, and filled with the odour of hay +which the troopers had harvested "on behalf of the Kaiser." Across the +road "Gretchen," Karl's mare, grazed ruminatively, while the picket +himself sat on the stone wall by the roadside, smoking the Bremen cigar +which his corporal had given him after dinner.</p> + +<p>The night was thick with stars. They were all so bright that at first he +did not notice the comet which sailed slowly toward him from the +northwest, seemingly following the line of the German intrenchments from +Amiens, St.-Quentin, and Laon toward Rheims and Épernay. But the comet +was there, dropping a long yellow beam of light upon the sleeping hosts +that were beleaguering the outer ring of the French fortifications. +Suddenly the repose of Biedenkopf's retrospections was abruptly +disconcerted by the distant pounding of hoofs far down the road from +Verdun. He sprang off the wall, took up his rifle, crossed the road, +hastily adjusted "Gretchen's" bridle, leaped into the saddle, and +awaited the night rider, whoever he might be. At a distance of three +hundred feet he cried: "Halt!" The rider drew rein, hastily gave the +countersign, and Biedenkopf, recognizing the aide-de-camp, saluted and +drew aside.</p> + +<p>"There goes a lucky fellow," he said aloud. "Nothing to do but ride up +and down the roads, stopping wherever he sees a pleasant inn or a pretty +face, spending money like water, and never risking a hair of his head."</p> + +<p>It never occurred to him that maybe his was the luck. And while the +aide-de-camp galloped on and the sound of his horse's hoofs grew fainter +and fainter down the road toward the village, the comet came sailing +swiftly on overhead, deluging the fortifications with a blinding +orange-yellow light. It could not have been more than a mile away when +Biedenkopf saw it. Instantly his trained eye recognized the fact that +this strange round object shooting through the air was no wandering +celestial body.</p> + +<p>"<i>Ein Flieger!</i>" he cried hoarsely, staring at it in astonishment, +knowing full well that no dirigible or aeroplane of German manufacture +bore any resemblance to this extraordinary voyager of the air.</p> + +<p>A hundred yards down the road his field telephone was attached to a +poplar, and casting one furtive look at the Flying Ring he galloped to +the tree and rang up the corporal of the guard. But at the very instant +that his call was answered a series of terrific detonations shook the +earth and set the wires roaring in the receiver, so that he could hear +nothing. One—two—three—four of them, followed by a distant answering +boom in the west.</p> + +<p>And then the whole sky seemed full of fire. He was hurled backward upon +the road and lay half-stunned, while the earth discharged itself into +the air with a roar like that of ten thousand shells exploding all +together. The ground shook, groaned, grumbled, grated, and showers of +boards, earth, branches, rocks, vegetables, tiles, and all sorts of +unrecognizable and grotesque objects fell from the sky all about him. It +was like a gigantic and never-ending mine, or series of mines, in +continuous explosion, a volcano pouring itself upward out of the bowels +of an incandescent earth. Above the earsplitting thunder of the eruption +he heard shrill cries and raucous shoutings. Mounted men dashed past him +down the road, singly and in squadrons. A molten globe dropped through +the branches of the poplar, and striking the hard surface of the road at +a distance of fifty yards scattered itself like a huge ingot dropped +from a blast furnace. Great clouds of dust descended and choked him. A +withering heat enveloped him....</p> + +<p>It was noon next day when Karl Biedenkopf raised his head and looked +about him. He thought first there had been a battle. But the sight that +met his eyes bore no resemblance to a field of carnage. Over his head he +noticed that the uppermost branches of the poplar had been seared as by +fire. The road looked as if the countryside had been traversed by a +hurricane. All sorts of débris filled the fields and everywhere there +seemed to be a thick deposit of blackened earth. Vaguely realizing that +he must report for duty, he crawled, in spite of his bursting head and +aching limbs, on all fours down the road toward the village.</p> + +<p>But he could not find the village. There was no village there; and soon +he came to what seemed to be the edge of a gigantic crater, where the +earth had been uprooted and tossed aside as if by some huge convulsion +of nature. Here and there masses of inflammable material smoked and +flickered with red flames. His eyes sought the familiar outlines of the +redoubts and fortifications, but found them not. And where the village +had been there was a great cavern in the earth, and the deepest part of +the cavern, or so it seemed to his half-blinded sight, was at about the +point where the cottage had stood which his general had used as his +headquarters, the spot where the night before that general had raised +his glass of bubbling wine and toasted "Thanatos," the personification +of death, and called his officers to witness that this was the greatest +moment in the history of warfare, a moment that they would all remember +to their dying day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2> + + +<p>The shabby-genteel little houses of the Appian Way, in Cambridge, whose +window-eyes with their blue-green lids had watched Bennie Hooker come +and go, trudging back and forth to lectures and recitations, first as +boy and then as man, for thirty years, must have blinked with amazement +at the sight of the little professor as he started on the afterward +famous Hooker Expedition to Labrador in search of the Flying Ring.</p> + +<p>For the five days following Thornton's unexpected visit Bennie, existing +without sleep and almost without food save for his staple of +ready-to-serve chocolate, was the centre of a whirl of books, +logarithms, and calculations in the University Library, and constituted +himself an unmitigated, if respected, pest at the Cambridge Observatory. +Moreover—and this was the most iconoclastic spectacle of all to his +conservative pedagogical neighbours in the Appian Way—telegraph boys on +bicycles kept rushing to and fro in a stream between the Hooker +boarding-house and Harvard Square at all hours of the day and night.</p> + +<p>For Bennie had lost no time and had instantly started in upon the same +series of experiments to locate the origin of the phenomena which had +shaken the globe as had been made use of by Professor von Schwenitz at +the direction of General von Helmuth, the Imperial German Commissioner +for War, at Mainz. The result had been approximately identical, and +Hooker had satisfied himself that somewhere in the centre of Labrador +his fellow-scientist—the discoverer of the Lavender Ray—was conducting +the operations that had resulted in the dislocation of the earth's axis +and retardation of its motion. Filled with a pure and unselfish +scientific joy, it became his sole and immediate ambition to find the +man who had done these things, to shake him by the hand, and to compare +notes with him upon the now solved problems of thermic induction and of +atomic disintegration.</p> + +<p>But how to get there? How to reach him? For Prof. Bennie Hooker had +never been a hundred miles from Cambridge in his life, and a journey to +Labrador seemed almost as difficult as an attempt to reach the pole. Off +again then to the University Library, with pale but polite young ladies +hastening to fetch him atlases, charts, guidebooks, and works dealing +with sport and travel, until at last the great scheme unfolded itself to +his mind—the scheme that was to result in the perpetuation of atomic +disintegration for the uses of mankind and the subsequent alteration of +civilization, both political and economic. Innocently, ingeniously, +ingenuously, he mapped it all out. No one must know what he was about. +Oh, no! He must steal away, in disguise if need be, and reach Pax alone. +Three would be a crowd in that communion of scientific thought! He must +take with him the notes of his own experiments, the diagrams of his +apparatus, and his precious zirconium; and he must return with the great +secret of atomic disintegration in his breast, ready, with the +discoverer's permission, to give it to the dry and thirsty world. And +then, indeed, the earth would blossom like the rose!</p> + +<p>A strange sight, the start of the Hooker Expedition!</p> + +<p>Doctor Jelly's coloured housemaid had just thrown a pail of blue-gray +suds over his front steps—it was 6:30 A.M.—and was on the point of +resignedly kneeling and swabbing up the doctor's porch, when she saw the +door of the professor's residence open cautiously and a curious human +exhibit, the like of which had ne'er before been seen on sea or land, +surreptitiously emerge. It was Prof. Bennie Hooker—disguised as a +salmon fisherman!</p> + +<p>Over a brand-new sportsman's knickerbocker suit of screaming yellow +check he had donned an English mackintosh. On his legs were gaiters, and +on his head a helmetlike affair of cloth with a visor in front and +another behind, with eartabs fastened at the crown with a piece of black +ribbon—in other words a "Glengarry." The suit had been manufactured in +Harvard Square, and was a triumph of sartorial art on the part of one +who had never been nearer to a real fisherman than a coloured fashion +plate. However, it did suggest a sportsman of the variety usually +portrayed in the comic supplements, and, to complete the picture, in +Professor Hooker's hands and under his arms were yellow pigskin bags and +rod cases, so that he looked like the show window of a harness store.</p> + +<p>"Fo' de land sakes!" exclaimed the Jellys' coloured maid, oblivious of +her suds. "Fo' de Lawd! Am dat Perfesser Hookey?"</p> + +<p>It was! But a new and glorified professor, with a soul thrilling to the +joy of discovery and romance, with a flash in his eyes, and the savings +of ten years in a large roll in his left-hand knickerbocker pocket.</p> + +<p>Thus started the Hooker Expedition, which discovered the Flying Ring and +made the famous report to the Smithsonian Institution after the +disarmament of the nations. But could the nations have seen the +expedition as it emerged from its boarding-house that September morning +they would have rubbed their eyes.</p> + +<p>With the utmost difficulty Prof. Bennie Hooker negotiated his bags and +rod cases as far as Harvard Square, where, through the assistance of a +friendly conductor with a sense of humour, he was enabled to board an +electric surface car to the North Station.</p> + +<p>Beyond the start up the River Moisie his imagination refused to carry +him. But he had a faith that approximated certainty that over the Height +of Land—just over the edge—he would find Pax and the Flying Ring. +During all the period required for his experiments and preparations he +had never once glanced at a newspaper or inquired as to the progress of +the war that was rapidly exterminating the inhabitants of the globe. +Thermic induction, atomic disintegration, the Lavender Ray, these were +the Alpha, the Sigma, the Omega of his existence.</p> + +<p>But meantime<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> the war had gone on with all its concomitant horror, +suffering, and loss of life, and the representatives of the nations +assembled at Washington had been feverishly attempting to unite upon the +terms of a universal treaty that should end militarism and war forever. +And thereafter, also, although Professor Hooker was sublimely +unconscious of the fact, the celebrated conclave, known as Conference +No. 2, composed of the best-known scientific men from every laud, was +sitting, perspiring, in the great lecture hall of the Smithsonian +Institution, its members shouting at one another in a dozen different +languages, telling each other what they did and didn't know, and +becoming more and more confused and entangled in an underbrush of +contradictory facts and observations and irreconcilable theories until +they were making no progress whatever—which was precisely what the +astute and plausible Count von Koenitz, the German Ambassador, had +planned and intended.</p> + +<p>The Flying Ring did not again appear, and in spite of the uncontroverted +testimony of Acting-Consul Quinn, Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad, and a +thousand others who had actually seen the Lavender Ray, people began +gradually, almost unconsciously, to assume that the destruction of the +Atlas Mountains had been the work of an unsuspected volcano and that the +presence of the Flying Ring had been a coincidence and not the cause of +the disruption. So the incident passed by and public attention +refocussed itself upon the conflict on the plains of Châlons-sur-Marne. +Only Bill Hood, Thornton, and a few others in the secret, together with +the President, the Cabinet, and the members of Conference No. 1 and of +Conference No. 2, truly apprehended the significance of what had +occurred, and realized that either war or the human race must pass away +forever. And no one at all, save only the German Ambassador and the +Imperial German Commissioners, suspected that one of the nations had +conceived and was putting into execution a plan designed to result in +the acquirement of the secret of how the earth could be rocked and in +the capture of the discoverer. For the <i>Sea Fox</i>, bearing the German +expeditionary force, had sailed from Amsterdam twelve days after the +conference held at Mainz between Professor von Schwenitz and General von +Helmuth, and having safely rounded the Orkneys was now already well on +its course toward Labrador. Bennie Hooker, however, was ignorant of all +these things. Like an immigrant with a tag on his arm, he sat on the +train which bore him toward Quebec, his ticket stuck into the band on +his hat, dreaming of a transformer that wouldn't—couldn't—melt at only +six thousand degrees.</p> + +<p>When Professor Hooker awoke in his room at the hotel in Quebec the +morning after his arrival there, he ate a leisurely breakfast, and +having smoked a pipe on the terrace, strolled down to the wharves along +the river front. Here to his disgust he learned that the Labrador +steamer, the <i>Druro</i>, would not sail until the following Thursday—a +three days' wait. Apparently Labrador was a less-frequented locality +than he had supposed. He mastered his impatience, however, and +discovering a library presided over by a highly intelligent graduate of +Edinburgh, he became so interested in various profound treatises on +physics which he discovered that he almost missed his boat.</p> + +<p>Assisted by the head porter, and staggering under the weight of his new +rod cases and other impedimenta, Bennie boarded the <i>Druro</i> on Thursday +morning, engaged a stateroom, and purchased a ticket for Seven Islands, +which is the nearest harbour to the mouth of the River Moisie. She was a +large and comfortable river steamer of about eight hundred and fifty +tons, and from her appearance belied the fact that she was the +connecting link between civilization and the desolate and ice-clad +wastes of the Far North, as in fact she was. The captain regarded Bennie +with indifference, if not disrespect, grunted, and ascending to the +pilot house blew the whistle. Quebec, with its teeming wharves and +crowded shipping, overlooked by the cliffs that made Wolfe famous, +slowly fell behind. Off their leeward bow the Isle of Orléans swung +nearer and swept past, its neat homesteads inviting the weary traveller +to pastoral repose. The river cleared. Low, farm-clad shores began to +slip by. The few tourists and returning habitans settled themselves in +the bow and made ready for their voyage.</p> + +<p>There would have been much to interest the ordinary American traveller +in this comparatively unfrequented corner of his native continent; but +our salmon fisherman, having conveniently disposed of his baggage, +immediately retired to his stateroom and, intent on saving time, +proceeded, wholly oblivious of the <i>Druro</i>, to read passionately several +exceedingly uninviting looking books which he produced from his valise. +The <i>Druro</i>, quite as oblivious to Professor Hooker, proceeded on her +accustomed way, passed by Tadousac, and made her first stop at the +Godbout. Bennie, finding the boat no longer in motion, reappeared on +deck under the mistaken impression that they had reached the end of the +voyage, for he was unfamiliar with the topography of the St. Lawrence, +and in fact had very vague ideas as to distances and the time required +to traverse them by rail or boat.</p> + +<p>At the Godbout the <i>Druro</i> dropped a habitan or two, a few boatloads of +steel rods, crates of crockery and tobacco, and then thrust her bow out +into the stream and steered down river, rounding at length the Pointe +des Monts and winding in behind the Isles des Oeufs to the River +Pentecoute, where she deposited some more habitans, including a priest +in a black soutane, who somewhat incongruously was smoking a large +cigar. Then, nosing through a fog bank and breaking out at last into +sunlight again, she steamed across and put in past the Carousel, that +picturesque and rocky headland, into Seven Islands Bay. Here she +anchored, and, having discharged cargo, steamed out by the Grand Boule, +where eighteen miles beyond the islands Bennie saw the pilot house of +the old <i>St. Olaf</i>, of unhappy memory, just lifting above the water.</p> + +<p>He had emerged from the retirement of his stateroom only on being asked +by the steward for his ticket and learning that the <i>Druro</i> was nearing +the end of her journey. For nearly two days he had been submerged in +Soddy on The Interpretation of Radium. The <i>Druro</i> was running along a +sandy, low-lying beach about half a mile offshore. They were nearing the +mouth of a wide river. The volume of black fresh water from the Moisie +rushed out into the St. Lawrence until it met the green sea water, +causing a sharp demarcation of colour and a no less pronounced conflict +of natural forces. For, owing to the pressure of the tide against the +solid mass of the fresh stream, acres of water unexpectedly boiled on +all sides, throwing geysers of foam twenty feet or more into the air, +and then subsided. Off the point the engine bell rang twice, and the +<i>Druro</i> came to a pause.</p> + +<p>Bennie, standing in the bow, in his sportsman's cap and waterproof, +hugging his rod cases to his breast, watched while a heterogeneous fleet +of canoes, skiffs, and sailboats came racing out from shore, for the +steamer does not land here, but hangs in the offing and lighters its +cargo ashore. Leading the lot was a sort of whaleboat propelled by two +oars on one side and one on the other, and in the sternsheets sat a +rosy-cheeked, good-natured looking man with a smooth-shaven face who +Bennie knew must be Malcolm Holliday.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Cap!" shouted Holliday. "Any passengers?"</p> + +<p>The captain from the pilot house waved contemptuously in Bennie's +general direction.</p> + +<p>"Howdy!" said Holliday. "What do you want? What can I do for you?"</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd try a little salmon fishing," shrieked Bennie back at +him.</p> + +<p>Holliday shook his head. "Sorry," he bellowed, "river's leased. Besides, +the officers<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> are here."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" answered Bennie ruefully. "I didn't know. I supposed I could fish +anywhere."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can't!" snapped Holliday, puzzled by the little man's curious +appearance.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I can go ashore, can't I?" insisted Bennie somewhat +indignantly. "I'll just take a camping trip then. I'd like to see the +big salmon cache up at the forks if I can't do anything else."</p> + +<p>Instantly Holliday scented something. "Another fellow after gold," he +muttered to himself.</p> + +<p>Just at that moment, the tide being at the ebb, a hundred acres of green +water off the <i>Druro's</i> bow broke into whirling waves and jets of foam +again. All about them, and a mile to seaward, these merry men danced by +the score. Bennie thrilled at the beauty of it. The whaleboat containing +Holliday was now right under the ship's bows.</p> + +<p>"I want to look round anyhow," expostulated Bennie. "I've come all the +way from Boston." He felt himself treated like a criminal, felt the +suspicion in Holliday's eye.</p> + +<p>The factor laughed. "In that case you certainly deserve sympathy." Then +he hesitated. "Oh, well, come along," he said finally. "We'll see what +we can do for you."</p> + +<p>A rope ladder had been thrown over the side and one of the sailors now +lowered Bennie's luggage into the boat. The professor followed, avoiding +with difficulty stepping on his mackintosh as he climbed down the +slippery rounds. Holliday grasped his hand and yanked him to a seat in +the stern.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he repeated, "if you've come all the way from Boston I guess +we'll have to put you up for a few days anyway."</p> + +<p>A crate of canned goods, a parcel of mail, and a huge bundle of +newspapers were deposited in the bow. Holliday waved his hand. The +<i>Druro</i> churned the water and swung out into midstream again. Bennie +looked curiously after her. To the north lay a sandy shore dotted by a +scraggy forest of dwarf spruce and birch. A few fishing huts and a mass +of wooden shanties fringed the forest. To the east, seaward, many miles +down that great stretch of treacherous, sullen river waited a gray bank +of fog. But overhead the air was crystalline with that sparkling, +scratchy brilliance that is found only in northern climes. Nature seemed +hard, relentless. With his feet entangled in rod cases Professor Hooker +wondered for a moment what on earth he was there for, landing on this +inhospitable coast. Then his eyes sought the genial face of Malcolm +Holliday and hope sprang up anew. For there is that about this genial +frontiersman that draws all men to him alike, be they Scotch or English, +Canadian habitans or Montagnais, and he is the king of the coast, as his +father was before him, or as was old Peter McKenzie, the head factor, +who incidentally cast the best salmon fly ever thrown east of Montreal +or south of Ungava. Bennie found comfort in Holliday's smile, and felt +toward him as a child does toward its mother.</p> + +<p>They neared shore and ran alongside a ramshackle pier, up the slippery +poles of which Bennie was instructed to clamber. Then, dodging rotten +boards and treacherous places, he gained the sand of the beach and stood +at last on Labrador. A group of Montagnais picked up the professor's +luggage and, headed by Holliday, they started for the latter's house. It +was a strange and amusing landing of an expedition the results of which +have revolutionized the life of the inhabitants of the entire globe. No +such inconspicuous event has ever had so momentous a conclusion. And now +when Malcolm Holliday makes his yearly trip home to Quebec, to report to +the firm of Holliday Brothers, who own all the nets far east of +Anticosti, he spends hours at the Club des Voyageurs, recounting in +detail all the circumstances surrounding the arrival of Professor Hooker +and how he took him for a gold hunter.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow," he finishes, "I knew he wasn't a salmon fisherman in spite of +his rods and cases, for he didn't know a Black Dose from a Thunder and +Lightning or a Jock Scott, and he thought you could catch salmon with a +worm!"</p> + +<p>It was true wholly. Bennie did suppose one killed the king of game fish +as he had caught minnows in his childhood, and his geologic researches +in the Harvard Library had not taught him otherwise. Neither had his +tailor.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Holliday as they smoked their pipes on the narrow +board piazza at the Post, "of course I'll help you all I can, but you've +come at a bad season of the year all round. In the first place, you'll +be eaten alive by black flies, gnats, and mosquitoes." He slapped +vigorously as he spoke. "And you'll have the devil of a job getting +canoe men. You see all the Montagnais are down here at the settlement +'making their mass.' Once a year they leave the hunting grounds up by +the Divide and beyond and come down river to '<i>faire la messe</i>'—it's a +sacred duty with 'em. They're very religious, as you probably know—a +fine lot, too, take 'em altogether, gentle, obedient, industrious, +polite, cheerful, and fair to middling honest. They have a good deal of +French blood—a bit diluted, but it's there."</p> + +<p>"Can't I get a few to go along with me?" asked Bennie anxiously.</p> + +<p>"That's a question," answered the factor meditatively. "You know how the +birds—how caribou—migrate every year. Well, these Montagnais are just +like them. They have a regular routine. Each man has a line of traps of +his own, all the way up to the Height of Land. They all go up river in +the autumn with their winter's supply of pork, flour, tea, powder, lead, +axes, files, rosin to mend their canoes, and castoreum—made out of +beaver glands, you know—to take away the smell of their hands from the +baited traps. They go up in families, six or seven canoes together, and +as each man reaches his own territory his canoe drops out of the +procession and he makes a camp for his wife and babies. Then he spends +the winter—six or seven months—in the woods following his line of +traps. By and by the ice goes out and he begins to want some society. He +hasn't seen a priest for ten months or so, and he's afraid of the +<i>loup-garou</i>, for all I know. So he comes down river, takes his Newport +season here at Moisie, and goes to mass and staves off the <i>loup-garou</i>. +They're all here now. Maybe you can get a couple to go up river and +maybe you can't."</p> + +<p>Then observing Bennie's crestfallen expression, he added:</p> + +<p>"But we'll see. Perhaps you can get Marc St. Ange and Edouard Moreau, +both good fellows. They've made their mass and they know the country +from here to Ungava. There's Marc now—<i>Venez ici</i>, Marc St. Ange." A +swarthy, lithe Montagnais was coming down the road, and Holliday +addressed him rapidly in habitan French: "This gentleman wishes to go up +river to the forks to see the big cache. Will you go with him?"</p> + +<p>The Montagnais bowed to Professor Hooker and pondered the suggestion. +Then he gesticulated toward the north and seemed to Bennie to be telling +a long story.</p> + +<p>Holliday laughed again. "Marc says he will go," he commented shortly. +"But he says also that if the Great Father of the Marionettes is angry +he will come back."</p> + +<p>"What does he mean by that?" asked Bennie.</p> + +<p>"Why, when the aurora borealis—Northern Lights—plays in the sky the +Indians always say that the 'marionettes are dancing.' About four weeks +ago we had some electrical disturbances up here and a kind of an +earthquake. It scared these Indians silly. There was a tremendous +display, almost like a volcano. It beat anything I ever saw, and I've +been here fifteen years. The Indians said the Father of the Marionettes +was angry because they didn't dance enough to suit him, and that he was +making them dance. Then some of them caught a glimpse of a shooting +star, or a comet, or something, and called it the Father of the +Marionettes. They had quite a time—held masses, and so on—and were +really cut up. But the thing is over now, except for the regular, +ordinary display."</p> + +<p>"When can they be ready?" inquired Bennie eagerly.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning," replied Holliday. "Marc will engage his uncle. +They're all right. Now how about an outfit? But don't talk any more +about salmon. I know what you're after—it's <i>gold</i>!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The moon was still hanging low over the firs at four o'clock the next +morning when three black and silent shadows emerged from the factor's +house and made their way, cautiously and with difficulty, across the +sand to where a canoe had been run into the riffles of the beach. Marc +came first, carrying a sheet-iron stove with a collapsible funnel; then +his Uncle Edouard, shouldering a bundle consisting of a tent and a +couple of sacks of flour and pork; and lastly Professor Hooker with his +mackintosh and rifle, entirely unaware of the fact that his careful +guides had removed all the cartridges from his luggage lest he should +shoot too many caribou and so spoil the winter's food supply. It was +cold, almost frosty. In the black flood of the river the stars burned +with a chill, wavering light. Bennie put on his mackintosh with a +shiver. The two guides quietly piled the luggage in the centre of the +canoe, arranged a seat for their passenger, picked up their paddles, +shoved off, and took their places in bow and stern.</p> + +<p>No lights gleamed in the windows of Moisie. The lap of the ripples +against the birch side of the canoe, the gurgle of the water round the +paddle blades, and the rush of the bow as, after it had paused on the +withdraw, it leaped forward on the stroke, were the only sounds that +broke the deathlike silence of the semi-arctic night. Bennie struck a +match, and it flared red against the black water as he lit his pipe, but +he felt a great stirring within his little breast, a great courage to +dare, to do, for he was off, really off, on his great hunt, his search +for the secret that would remake the world. With the current whispering +against its sides the canoe swept in a wide circle to midstream. The +moon was now partially obscured behind the treetops. To the east a faint +glow made the horizon seem blacker than ever. Ahead the wide waste of +the dark river seemed like an engulfing chasm. Drowsiness enwrapped +Professor Hooker, a drowsiness intensified by the rythmic swinging of +the paddles and the pile of bedding against which he reclined. He closed +his eyes, content to be driven onward toward the region of his hopes, +content almost to fall asleep.</p> + +<p>"Hi!" suddenly whispered Marc St. Ange. "<i>Voilà! Le père des +marionettes!</i>"</p> + +<p>Bennie awoke with a start that almost upset the canoe. The blood rushed +to his face and sang in his ears.</p> + +<p>"Where?" he cried. "Where?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Au nord</i>," answered Marc. "<i>Mais il descend!</i>"</p> + +<p>Professor Hooker stared in the direction of Marc's uplifted paddle. Was +he deceived? Was the wish father to the thought? Or did he really see at +an immeasurable distance upon the horizon a quickly dying trail of +orange-yellow light? He rubbed his eyes—his heart beating wildly under +his sportsman's suiting. But the north was black beyond the coming dawn.</p> + +<p>Old Edouard grunted.</p> + +<p>"<i>Vous êtes fou!</i>" he muttered to his nephew, and drove his paddle deep +into the water.</p> + +<p>Day broke with staccato emphasis. The sun swung up out of Europe and +burned down upon the canoe with a heat so equatorial in quality that +Bennie discarded both his mackintosh and his sporting jacket. All signs +of human life had disappeared from the distant banks of the river and +the bow of the canoe faced a gray-blue flood emerging from a wilderness +of scrubby trees. A few gulls flopped their way coast-ward, and at rare +intervals a salmon leaped and slashed the slow-moving surface into a +boiling circle; but for the rest their surroundings were as set, as +immobile, as the painted scenery of a stage, save where the current +swept the scattered promontories of the shore. But they moved steadily +north. So wearied was Bennie with the unaccustomed light and fresh air +that by ten o'clock he felt the day must be over, although the sun had +not yet reached the zenith. Unexpectedly Marc and Edouard turned the +canoe quietly into a shallow, and beached her on a spit of white sand. +In three minutes Edouard had a small fire snapping, and handed Bennie a +cup of tea. How wonderful it seemed—a genuine elixir! And then he felt +the stab of a mosquito, and putting up his hand found it blotched with +blood. And the black flies came also. Soon the professor was tramping up +and down, waving his handkerchief and clutching wildly at the air. Then +they pushed off again.</p> + +<p>The sun dropped westward as they turned bend after bend, disclosing ever +the same view beyond. Shadows of rocks and trees began to jut across the +eddies. A great heron, as big as an ostrich, or so he seemed, arose +awkwardly and flapped off, trailing yards of legs behind him. Then +Bennie put on first his jacket and then his mackintosh. He realized that +his hands were numb. The sun was now only a foot or so above the sky +line.</p> + +<p>This time it was Marc who grunted and thrust the canoe toward the +river's edge with a sideways push. It grounded on a belt of sand and +they dragged it ashore. Bennie, who had been looking forward to the +night with vivid apprehension, now discovered to his great happiness +that the chill was keeping away the black flies. Joyfully he assisted in +gathering dry sticks, driving tent pegs, and picking reindeer moss for +bedding. Then as darkness fell Edouard fried eggs and bacon, and with +their boots off and their stockinged feet toasting to the blaze the +three men ate as becomes men who have laboured fifteen hours in the open +air. They drank tin cups of scalding tea, a pint at a time, and found it +good; and they smoked their pipes with their backs propped against the +tree trunks and found it heaven. Then as the stars came out and the +woods behind them snapped with strange noises, Edouard took his pipe +from his mouth.</p> + +<p>"It's getting cold," said he. "The marionettes will dance to-night."</p> + +<p>Bennie heard him as if across a great, yawning gulf. Even the firelight +seemed hundreds of yards away. The little professor was "all in," and he +sat with his chin dropped again to his chest, until he heard Marc +exclaim:</p> + +<p>"<i>Voilà! Elles dansent!</i>"</p> + +<p>He raised his eyes. Just across the black, silent sweep of the river +three giant prismatic searchlights were playing high toward the +polestar, such searchlights as the gods might be using in some monstrous +game. They wavered here and there, shifting and dodging, faded and +sprang up again, till Bennie, dizzy, closed his eyes. The lights were +still dancing in the north as he stumbled to his couch of moss.</p> + +<p>"<i>Toujour les marionettes!</i>" whispered Marc gently, as he might to a +child. "<i>Bon soir, monsieur.</i>"</p> + +<p>The tent was hot and dazzling white above his head when low voices, +footsteps, and the clink of tin against iron aroused the professor from +a profound coma. The guides had already loaded the canoe and were +waiting for him. The sun was high. Apologetically he pulled on his +boots, and stepping to the sand dashed the icy water into his face. His +muscles groaned and rasped. His neck refused to respond to his desires +with its accustomed elasticity. But he drank his tea and downed his +scrambled eggs with an enthusiasm unknown in Cambridge, Massachusetts. +Marc gave him a hand into the canoe and they were off. The day had +begun.</p> + +<p>The river narrowed somewhat and the shores grew more rocky. At noon they +lunched on another sand-spit. At sunset they saw a caribou. Night came. +"Always the marionettes." Thus passed nine days—like a dream to Bennie; +and then came the first adventure.</p> + +<p>It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of the tenth day of their +trip up the Moisie when Marc suddenly stopped paddling and gazed +intently shoreward. After a moment he said something in a low tone to +Edouard, and they turned the canoe and drove it rapidly toward a small +cove half hidden by rocks. Bennie, straining his eyes, could see nothing +at first, but when the canoe was but ten yards from shore he caught +sight of the motionless figure of a man, lying on his face with his head +nearly in the water. Marc turned him over gently, but the limbs fell +limp, one leg at a grotesque angle to the knee. Bennie saw instantly +that it was broken. The Indian's face was white and drawn, no doubt with +pain.</p> + +<p>"<i>Il est mort!</i>" said Marc slowly, crossing himself.</p> + +<p>Edouard shrugged his shoulders and fetched a small flask of brandy from +the professor's sack. Forcing open the jaws, he poured a few drops into +the man's mouth. The Indian choked and opened his eyes. Edouard grunted.</p> + +<p>"<i>La jeunesse pense qu'elle sait tout!</i>" he remarked scornfully.</p> + +<p>Thus they found Nichicun, without whom Bennie might never have +accomplished the object of his quest. It took three days to nurse the +half-dead and altogether starved Montagnais back to life, but he +received the tenderest care. Marc shot a young caribou and gave him the +blood to drink, and made a ragout to put the flesh back on his bones. +Meanwhile the professor slept long hours on the moss and took a +much-needed rest; and by degrees they learned from Nichicun the story of +his misfortune—the story that forms a part of the chronicle of the +expedition, which can be read at the Smithsonian Institution.</p> + +<p>He was a Montagnais, he said, with a line of traps to the northeast of +the Height of Land, and last winter he had had very bad luck indeed. +There had been less and less in his traps and he had seen no caribou. So +he had taken his wife, who was sick, and had gone over into the Nascopee +country for food, and there his wife had died. He had made up his mind +very late in the season to come down to Moisie and make his mass and get +a new wife, and start a fresh line of traps in the autumn. All the other +Montagnais had descended the river in their canoes long before, so he +was alone. His provisions had given out and he saw no caribou. He began +to think he would surely starve to death. And then one evening, on the +point just above their present camp, he had seen a caribou and shot it, +but he had been too weak to take good aim and had only broken its +shoulder. It lay kicking among the boulders, pushing itself along by its +hind legs, and he had feared that it would escape. In his haste to reach +it he had slipped on a wet rock and fallen and broken his leg. In spite +of the pain he had crawled on, and then had taken place a wild, terrible +fight for life between the dying man and the dying beast.</p> + +<p>He could not remember all that had occurred—he had been kicked, gored, +and bitten; but finally he had got a grip on its throat and slashed it +with his knife. Then, lying there on the ground beside it, he drank its +blood and cut off the raw flesh in strips for food. Finally one day he +had crawled to the river for water and had fainted.</p> + +<p>The professor and his guides made for the Indian a hut of rocks and +bark, and threw a great pile of moss into the corner of it for him to +lie on. They carved a splint for his leg and bound it up, and cut a huge +heap of firewood for him, smoking caribou meat and hanging it up in the +hut. Somebody would come up river and find him, or if not, the three men +would pick him up on their return. For this was right and the law of the +woods. But never a word of particular interest to Prof. Bennie Hooker +did Nichicun speak until the night before their departure, although the +reason and manner of his speaking were natural enough. It happened as +follows: but first it should be said that the Nascopees are an ignorant +and barbarous tribe, dirty and treacherous, upon whom the Montagnais +look down with contempt and scorn. They do not even wear civilized +clothes, and their ways are not the ways of <i>les bons sauvages</i>. They +have no priests; they do not come to the coast; and the Montagnais will +not mingle with them. Thus it bespoke the hunger of Nichicun that he was +willing to go into their country.</p> + +<p>As he sat round the fire with Marc and Edouard on that last night, +Nichicun spoke his mind of the Nascopees, and Marc translated freely for +Bennie's edification.</p> + +<p>No, the injured Montagnais told them, the Nascopees were not nice; they +were dirty. They ate decayed food and they never went to mass. Moreover, +they were half-witted. While he was there they were all planning to +migrate for the most absurd reason—what do you suppose? Magic! They +claimed the end of the world was coming! Of course it was coming some +time. But they said now, right away. But why? Because the marionettes +were dancing so much. And they had seen the Father of the Marionettes +floating in the sky and making thunder! Fools! But the strangest thing +of all, they said they could hunt no longer, for they were afraid to +cross something—an iron serpent that stung with fire if you touched it, +and killed you! What foolishness! An iron serpent! But he had asked them +and they had sworn on the holy cross that it was true.</p> + +<p>Bennie listened with a chill creeping up his spine. But it would never +do to hint what this disclosure meant to him. Between puffs of his pipe +he asked casual, careless questions of Nichicun. These Nascopees, for +instance, how far off might their land be? And where did they assert +this extraordinary serpent of iron to be? Were there rivers in the +Nascopee country? Did white men ever go there? All these things the +wounded Montagnais told him. It appeared, moreover, that the Rassini +River was near the Nascopee territory, and that it flowed into the +Moisie only seven miles above the camp. All that night the marionettes +danced in Bennie's brain.</p> + +<p>Next morning they propped Nichicun on his bed of moss, laid a rifle and +a box of matches beside him, and bade him farewell. At the mouth of the +Rassini River Prof. Bennie Hooker held up his hand and announced that he +was going to the Nascopee country. The canoe halted abruptly. Old +Edouard declared that they had been engaged only to go to the big cache, +and that their present trip was merely by way of a little excursion to +see the river. They had no supplies for such a journey, no proper amount +of ammunition. No, they would deposit the professor on the nearest +sandbar if he wished, but they were going back.</p> + +<p>Bennie arose unsteadily in the canoe and dug into his pocket, producing +a roll of gold coin. Two hundred and fifty dollars he promised them if +they would take him to the nearest tribe of Nascopees; five hundred if +they could find the Iron Serpent.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bien!</i>" exclaimed both Indians without a moment's hesitation, and the +canoe plunged forward up the Rassini.</p> + +<p>Once more a dreamlike succession of brilliant, frosty days; once more +the star-studded sky in which always the marionettes danced. And then at +last the great falls of the Rassini, beyond which no white man had gone. +They hid the canoe in the bushes and placed beneath it the iron stove +and half their supply of food. Then they plunged into the brush, +eastward. Bennie had never known such grueling work and heartbreaking +fatigue; and the clouds of flies pursued them venomously and with +unrelenting persistence. At first they had to cut their way through +acres of brush, and then the land rose and they saw before them miles of +swamp and barren land dotted with dwarf trees and lichen-grown rocks. +Here it was easier and they made better time; but the professor's legs +ached and his rifle wore a red bruise on his shoulder. And then after +five days of torment they came upon the Iron Rail. It ran in almost a +direct line from northwest to southwest, with hardly a waver, straight +over the barrens and through the forests of scrub, with a five-foot +clearing upon either side. At intervals it was elevated to a height of +eight or ten inches upon insulated iron braces. Both Marc and Edouard +stared at in wonder, while Bennie made them a little speech.</p> + +<p>It was, he said, a thing called a "monorail," made by a man who +possessed strange secrets concerning the earth and the properties of +matter. That man lived over the Height of Land toward Ungava. He was a +good man and would not harm other good men. But he was a great +magician—if you believed in magic. On the rail undoubtedly he ran +something called a gyroscopic engine, and carried his stores and +machinery into the wilderness. The Nascopees were not such fools after +all, for here was the something they feared to cross—the iron serpent +that bit and killed. Let them watch while he made it bite. He allowed +his rifle to fall against the rail, and instantly a shower of blue +sparks flashed from it as the current leaped into the earth.</p> + +<p>Bennie counted out twenty-five golden eagles and handed them to Edouard. +If they followed the rail to its source he would, he promised, on their +return to civilization give them as much again. Without more ado the +Indians lifted their packs and swung off to the northwest along the line +of the rail. The stock of Prof. Bennie Hooker had risen in their +estimation. On they ploughed across the barrens, through swamps, over +the quaking muskeg, into the patches of scrub growth where the short +branches slapped their faces, but always they kept in sight of the rail.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The extraordinary announcement, transmitted from various European news +agencies, that an attempt had been made by the general commanding the +First Artillery Division of the German Army of the Meuse to violate the +armistice, had caused a profound sensation, particularly as the attempt +to destroy Paris had been prevented only by the sudden appearance of the +same mysterious Flying Ring that had shortly before caused the +destruction of the Atlas Mountains and the flooding of the Sahara Desert +by the Mediterranean Sea.</p> + +<p>The advent of the Flying Ring on this second occasion had been noted by +several hundred thousand persons, both soldiers and non-combatants. At +about the hour of midnight, as if to observe whether the warring nations +intended sincerely to live up to their agreement and bring about an +actual cessation of hostilities, the Ring had appeared out of the north +and, floating through the sky, had followed the lines of the +belligerents from Brussels to Verdun and southward. The blinding yellow +light that it had projected toward the earth had roused the soldiers +sleeping in their intrenchments and caused great consternation all along +the line of fortifications, as it was universally supposed that the +director of its flight intended to annihilate the combined armies of +France, England, Germany, and Belgium. But the Ring had sailed +peacefully along, three thousand feet aloft, deluging the countryside +with its dazzling light, sending its beams into the casemates of the +huge fortresses of the Rhine and the outer line of the French +fortifications, searching the redoubts and trenches, but doing no harm +to the sleeping armies that lay beneath it; until at last the silence of +the night had been broken by the thunder of "Thanatos," and in the +twinkling of an eye the Lavender Ray had descended, to turn the village +of Champaubert into the smoking crater of a dying volcano. The entire +division of artillery had been annihilated, with the exception of a few +stragglers, and of the Relay Gun naught remained but a distorted puddle +of steel and iron.</p> + +<p>Long before the news of the horrible retribution visited by the master +of the Ring upon Treitschke, the major-general of artillery, and the +inventor, Von Heckmann, had reached the United States, Bill Hood, +sitting in the wireless receiving station of the Naval Observatory at +Georgetown, had received through the ether a message from his mysterious +correspondent in the north that sent him hurrying to the White House. +Pax had called the Naval Observatory and had transmitted the following +ultimatum, repeating it, as was his custom, three times:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>To the President of the United States and to All Mankind:</i></p> + +<p>"I have put the nations to the test and found them wanting. The +solemn treaty entered into by the ambassadors of the belligerent +nations at Washington has been violated. My attempt by harmless +means to compel the cessation of hostilities and the abolition of +war has failed. I cannot trust the nations of the earth. Their +selfishness, their bloodthirstiness, and greed, will inevitably +prevent their fulfilling their agreements with me or keeping the +terms of their treaties with one another, which they regard, as +they themselves declare, merely as 'scraps of paper.' The time has +come for me to compel peace. I am the dictator of human destiny and +my will is law. War shall cease. On the 10th day of September I +shall shift the axis of the earth until the North Pole shall be in +the region of Strassburg and the South Pole in New Zealand. The +habitable zone of the earth will be hereafter in South Africa, +South and Central America, and regions now unfrequented by man. The +nations must migrate and a new life in which war is unknown must +begin upon the globe. This is my last message to the human race.</p> + +<p>PAX."</p></div> + +<p>The conference of ambassadors summoned by the President to the White +House that afternoon exhibited a character in striking contrast with the +first, at which Von Koenitz and the ambassadors from France, Russia, and +England had had their memorable disagreement. It was a serious, +apprehensive, and subdued group of gentlemen that gathered round the +great mahogany table in the Cabinet chamber to debate what course of +action the nations should pursue to avert the impending calamity to +mankind. For that Pax could shift the axis of the earth, or blow the +globe clean out of its orbit into space, if he chose to do so, no one +doubted any longer.</p> + +<p>And first it fell as the task of the ambassador representing the +Imperial German Commissioners to assure his distinguished colleagues +that his nation disavowed and denied all responsibility for the conduct +of General Treitschke in bombarding Paris after the hour set for the +armistice. It was unjust and contrary to the dictates of reason, he +argued, to hold the government of a nation comprising sixty-five +millions of human beings and five millions of armed men accountable for +the actions of a single individual. He spoke passionately, eloquently, +persuasively, and at the conclusion of his speech the ambassadors +present were forced to acknowledge that what he said was true, and to +accept without reservation his plausible assurances that the Imperial +German Commissioners had no thought but to cooperate with the other +governments in bringing about a lasting peace such as Pax demanded.</p> + +<p>But the immediate question was, had not the time for this gone by? Was +it not too late to convince the master of the Flying Ring that his +orders would be obeyed? Could anything be done to avert the calamity he +threatened to bring upon the earth—to prevent the conversion of Europe +into a barren waste of ice fields? For Pax had announced that he had +spoken for the last time and that the fate of Europe was sealed. All the +ambassadors agreed that a general European immigration was practically +impossible; and as a last resort it was finally decided to transmit to +Pax, through the Georgetown station, a wireless message signed by all +the ambassadors of the belligerent nations, solemnly agreeing within one +week to disband their armies and to destroy all their munitions and +implements of war. This message was delivered to Hood, with instructions +for its immediate delivery. All that afternoon and evening the operator +sat in the observatory, calling over and over again the three letters +that marked mankind's only communication with the controller of its +destiny:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"PAX—PAX—PAX!"</p></div> + +<p>But no answer came. For long, weary hours Hood waited, his ears glued to +the receivers. An impenetrable silence surrounded the master of the +Ring. Pax had spoken. He would say no more. Late that night Hood +reluctantly returned to the White House and informed the President that +he was unable to deliver the message of the nations.</p> + +<p>And meantime Prof. Bennie Hooker, with Marc and Edouard, struggled +across the wilderness of Labrador, following the Iron Rail that led to +the hiding-place of the master of the world.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The terrible fate of the German expeditionary force is too well known to +require comment. As has been already told, the <i>Sea Fox</i> had sailed from +Amsterdam twelve days after the conference in the War Office at Mainz +between General von Helmuth and Professor von Schwenitz. Once north of +the Orkneys it had encountered fair weather, and it had reached Hamilton +Inlet in ten days without mishap, and with the men and animals in the +best of condition. At Rigolet the men had disembarked and loaded their +howitzers, mules, and supplies upon the flat-bottomed barges brought +with them for that purpose. Thirty French and Indian guides had been +engaged, and five days later the expedition, towed by the powerful motor +launches, had started up the river toward the chain of lakes lying +northwest toward Ungava. Every one was in the best of spirits and +everything moved with customary German precision like clockwork. Nothing +had been forgotten, not even the pungent invention of a Berlin chemist +to discourage mosquitoes. Without labour, without anxiety, the fourteen +barges bored through the swift currents and at last reached a great lake +that lay like a silver mirror for miles about them. The moon rose and +turned the boats into weird shapes as they ploughed through the gray +mists—a strange and terrible sight for the Nascopees lurking in the +underbrush along the shore. And while the men smoked and sang "Die Wacht +am Rhein," listening to the trill of the ripples against the bows, the +foremost motorboat grounded.</p> + +<p>The momentum of the barge immediately following could not be checked, +and she in turn drove into what seemed to be a mud bank. At about the +same instant the other barges struck bottom. Intense excitement and +confusion prevailed among the members of the expedition, since they were +almost out of sight of land and the draft of the motorboats was only +nineteen inches. But no efforts could move the barges from where they +were. All night long the propellers churned the gleaming water of the +lake to foam, but without result. Each and every barge and boat was hard +and fast aground, and when the gray daylight came stealing across the +lake there was no lake to be seen, only a reeking marsh, covered for +miles with a welter of green slime and decaying vegetable matter across +which it would seem no human being or animal could flounder. As far as +the eye could reach lay only a blackish ooze. And with the sun came +millions of mosquitoes and flies, and drove the men and mules frantic +with their stings.</p> + +<p>Only one man, Ludwig Helmer, a gun driver from Potsdam, survived. Half +mad with the flies and nearly naked, he found his way somehow across the +quaking bog, after all his comrades had died of thirst, and reached a +tribe of Nascopees, who took him to the coast. A great explosion, they +told him, had torn the River Nascopee from its bed and diverted its +course. The lakes that it fed had all dried up.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Blinded by perspiration, sweltering under the heavy burden of their +outfit, goaded almost to frenzy by the black flies and mosquitoes, +Hooker and Marc and Edouard staggered through the brush, following the +monorail. They had already reached the summit of the Height of Land and +where now working down the northern slope in the direction of Ungava. +The land was barren beyond the imagination of the unimaginative Bennie. +Small dwarfed trees struggled for a footing amid the lichen-covered +outcroppings and sun-dried moss of the hollows. The slightest rise +showed mile upon mile of great waste undulating interminably in every +direction. The heat shimmering off the rocks was almost suffocating. At +noon on September 10th they threw themselves into the shade of a narrow +ledge, boiled some tea, and smoked their pipes, wildly fanning the air +to drive away the swarms of insects that attacked them.</p> + +<p>Hooker was half drunk from lack of sleep and water. Already once or +twice he had caught himself wandering when talking to Marc and Edouard. +The whole thing was like a horrible, disgusting nightmare. And then he +suddenly became aware that the two Indians were staring intently through +the clouds of mosquitoes over the tree tops to the eastward. Through the +sweat that trickled into his eyes he tried to make out what they could +see. But he could discern nothing except mosquitoes. And then he thought +he saw a mosquito larger than all the others. He waved at it, but it +remained where it was. A slight breeze momentarily wafted the swarm +away, and he still saw the big mosquito hovering over the horizon. Then +he heard Marc cry out:</p> + +<p>"<i>Quelque chose vol en l'air!</i>"</p> + +<p>He rubbed the moisture out of his eyes and stared at the mosquito, which +was growing bigger every minute. With the velocity of a projectile, this +monstrous insect, or whatever it was, came sweeping up behind them from +the Height of Land, soaring into the zenith in a great parabola, until +with a shiver of excitement Bennie recognized that it was the Flying +Ring.</p> + +<p>"It's him," he chattered emphatically, if ungrammatically.</p> + +<p>Marc and Edouard nodded.</p> + +<p>"<i>Oui, oui!</i>" they cried in unison. "<i>C'est celui que vous cherchez!</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>Il retourne chez lui</i>," said Marc.</p> + +<p>And then Bennie, without offering any explanation, found himself dancing +up and down upon the rocks in the dizzying sun, waving his hat and +shouting to the Father of the Marionettes. What he shouted he never +knew. And Marc and Edouard both shouted, too. But the master of the Ring +heard them not, or if he heard he paid them no attention. Nearer and +nearer came the Ring, until Bennie could see the gleaming cylinder of +its great steel circle. At a distance of about two miles it swept +through the air over a low ridge, and settled toward the earth in the +direction of Ungava.</p> + +<p>"He only goes ten mile maybe," announced Marc confidently. "<i>Un petit +bout de chemin.</i> We get there to-night."</p> + +<p>On they struggled beside the Rail, but now hope ran high. Bennie sang +and whistled, unmindful of the mosquitoes and black flies that renewed +their attacks with unremitting ferocity. The sun lowered itself into the +pine trees, shooting dazzling shafts through the low branches, and then +sank in a welter of crimson-yellow light. The sky turned gray in the +east; faint stars twinkled through the quivering waves that still shook +from the overheated rocks. It turned cold and the mosquitoes departed. +Hugging the Rail, they staggered on, now over shaking muskeg, now +through thickets of tangled brush, now on great ledges of barren rock, +and then across caribou barrens knee-deep in dry and crackling moss. +Darkness fell and prudence dictated that they should make camp. But in +their excitement they trudged on, until presently a pale glow behind the +dwarfed trees showed that the moon was rising. They boiled the water, +made tea, and cooked some biscuits. Soon they could see to pursue their +way.</p> + +<p>"'Most there now," encouraged Marc.</p> + +<p>Presently, instead of descending, they found the land was rising again, +and forcing their way through the undergrowth they struggled up a rocky +hillside, perhaps three hundred feet in height. Marc was in the lead, +with Bennie a few feet behind him. As they reached the crest the Indian +turned and pointed to something in front of him that Bennie was unable +to distinguish.</p> + +<p>"<i>Nous sommes arrivees</i>," he announced.</p> + +<p>With his heart thumping from the exertion of the climb, Bennie crawled +up beside his guide and found himself confronted by a strong barbed-wire +entanglement affixed to iron stanchions firmly imbedded in the rocks. +They were on the top of a ridge that dropped away abruptly at their feet +into a valley, perhaps a mile in width, terminating on the other side in +perpendicular cliffs, estimated by Bennie to be about eight hundred or a +thousand feet in height. Although the entanglement was by no means +impassable, it was a distinct obstacle and one they preferred to tackle +by daylight. Moreover, it indicated that their company was undesired. +They were in the presence of an unknown quantity, the master of the +Flying Ring. Whether he was a malign or a benevolent influence, this +Father of the Marionettes, they could not tell.</p> + +<p>With his back propped against a small spruce Bennie focused his glasses +upon dim shapes barely discernible in the midst of the valley. He was +thrilled by a deep excitement, a strange fear. What would he see? What +mysteries would those vague forms disclose? The shadows cast by the +cliffs and a light mist gathering in the low ground made it difficult to +see; and then, even as he looked, the moon rose higher and shone through +something in the middle of the valley that looked like a tall, grisly +skeleton. It seemed to have legs and arms, an odd mushroom-shaped head, +and endless ribs. Below and at its feet were other and vaguer +shapes—flat domes or cupolas, bombproofs perhaps, buildings of some +sort—Pax's home beyond peradventure.</p> + +<p>As he looked through the glasses at the skeleton-like tower Bennie had +an extraordinary feeling of having seen it all before somewhere. As in a +long-forgotten dream he remembered Tesla's tower near Smithtown, on Long +Island. And this was Tesla's tower, naught else! It is a strange thing, +how at great crises of our lives come feelings of anticipatory +knowledge. There is, indeed, nothing new under the sun; else had Bennie +been more afraid. As it was, he saw only Tesla's Smithtown tower with +its head like a young mushroom. And at the same time there flashed into +his memory: "Childe Harold to the Dark Tower Came." Over and over he +repeated it mechanically, feeling that he might be one of those of whom +the poet had sung. Yet he had not read the lines for years:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Burningly it came on me all at once,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>This was the place!...</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>What in the midst lay but the Tower itself?</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His eyes searched the shadows round the base of the tower, for his ears +had already caught a faint, almost inaudible throbbing that seemed to +grow from moment to moment. There certainly was a dull vibration in the +air, a vibration like the distant hum of machinery. Suddenly old Edouard +touched Bennie upon the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"<i>Regardez!</i>" he whispered.</p> + +<p>Some transformation was happening in the hood of the tower. From a black +opaque object it began to turn a dull red and to diffuse a subdued glow, +while the hum turned into a distinct whir.</p> + +<p>Bennie became almost hysterical with excitement.</p> + +<p>Soon the hood of the tower had turned white and the glow had increased +until the whole valley was lit up with a suffused and gentle light. The +Ring could be distinctly seen about half a mile away, resting upon a +huge circular support.</p> + +<p>"<i>C'est le feu!</i>" grunted Marc. "<i>C'est ainsi que l'on fait danser les +marionettes!</i>"</p> + +<p>There was no doubt that the hood of the tower was in fact white hot, for +the perpendicular cliffs of the mountain across the valley sharply +reflected the light that it disseminated. The humming whir of the great +alternator rose gradually into a scream like the outcry of some angry +thing. And then unexpectedly a shaft of pale lavender light shot out +from the glowing hood and lost itself in the blackness of the midnight +sky. Now appeared a wonderful and beautiful spectacle: immediately above +the point where the rays disappeared into the ether hundreds of points +of yellow fire suddenly sprang into being in the sky, darting hither and +thither like fireflies, some moving slowly and others with such speed +they appeared as even, luminous lines.</p> + +<p>"<i>Les marionettes! Les marionettes!</i>" Marc cried trembling.</p> + +<p>"Not at all! Not at all! They are meteorites!" answered Bennie, entirely +engrossed in the scientific phase of the matter and forgetting that he +did not speak the other's language. "Space is jammed full of meteoric +dust. The larger particles, which strike our atmosphere and which ignite +by friction, form shooting stars. The Ray—the Lavender Ray—reaching +out into the most distant regions of space meets them in countless +numbers and disintegrates them, surrounding them with glowing +atmospheres. By George, though, if he starts in playing the Ray upon +that cliff we've got to stand from under! Look here, boys," he shouted, +"stuff something in your ears." He seized his handkerchief, tore it +apart, and, making two plugs, thrust them into the openings of his ears +as far as the drums. The others in wonderment followed his example.</p> + +<p>"He's going to rock the earth!" cried Bennie Hooker. "He's going to rock +the earth again!"</p> + +<p>Slowly the Lavender Ray swung through the ether, followed by its +millions of meteorites, dipping downward toward the northern side of the +valley and sinking ever lower and lower toward the cliff. Bennie threw +himself flat on his stomach upon the ridge, pressing his hands to his +ears, and the others, feeling that something terrible was going to +happen, followed his example. Nearer and nearer toward the ridge dropped +the Ray. Bennie held his breath. Another instant and there came a +blinding splash of yellow light, a crash like thunder, and a roar that +seemed to tear the mountain from its base. The earth shook. Into the +zenith sprang a flame of incandescent vapour a mile in height. The +tumult increased. Vivid blue flashes of lightning shot out from the spot +upon which the Ray played. The air was filled with thunderings, and the +ground beneath them rose and fell and swung from side to side. Then came +a mighty wind, nay, a cyclone, and gravel and broken branches fell upon +them, and suffocating clouds of dust filled their eyes and shut out from +time to time what was occurring in the valley. The face of the cliff +glowed like the interior of a furnace, and the blazing yellow blast of +glowing helium shot over their heads and off into space, making the +night sky light as day.</p> + +<p>For a moment they all lay stunned and sightless. Then the discharge +appeared to diminish both in volume and in intensity. The air cleared +somewhat and the ground no longer trembled. The burst of flame slowly +subsided, like a fountain that is being gradually turned off. Either the +Ring man wasn't going to rock the earth or he had lost control of his +machinery.</p> + +<p>Something was clearly going wrong. Showers of sparks fell from the hood +and occasionally huge glowing masses of molten metal dropped from it. +And now the Lavender Ray began slowly to sweep down the face of the +cliff; and the yellow blast of helium gradually faded away until it was +scarcely visible. The roar of the alternator died down, first to a hum +and then to a purr.</p> + +<p>"Something's busted," thought Bennie, "and he's shut it off."</p> + +<p>The Ray had now reached the bottom of the cliff and was sweeping across +the ground toward the base of the tower, its path being marked by a +small travelling volcano that hurled its smoke and steam high into the +air. It was evident to Bennie that the hood of the tower was slowly +turning over, and that the now fast-fading Ray would presently play upon +its base and the adjacent cupola in which the master of the Ring was +probably attempting to control his recalcitrant machinery.</p> + +<p>And then Bennie lost consciousness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A splash of rain. He awoke, and found himself lying by the barbed-wire +fence in the graying light of dawn. His muscles were stiff and sore, but +he felt a strange sense of exhilaration. A mist was driving across the +valley and enshrouding the scene of the night's debacle. Through the +rain gusts he could see, still standing, the wreck of the tower, with a +fragment of melted inductor drooping from its apex—and a long way off +the Ring. The base of the tower and its surroundings were lost in mist. +He crawled to his knees and looked about him for Marc and Edouard, but +they had disappeared. His field glasses lay beside him, and he picked +them up and raised himself to his feet. Like stout Cortés, silent upon +his peak in Darien, he surveyed the Pacific of his dreams. For the Ring +was still there! Pax might be annihilated, his machinery destroyed, but +the secret remained—and it was his, Bennie Hooker's, of Appian Way, +Cambridge, Massachusetts! In his excitement, in getting over the fence +he tore a jagged hole in what was left of his sporting suit, but in a +moment more he was scrambling down the ridge into the ravine.</p> + +<p>He found it no easy task to climb down the jagged face of the cliff, but +twenty minutes of stiff work landed him in the valley and within a +thousand yards of the stark remains of the tower. Between where he stood +and the devastation caused by the culminating explosion of the night +before, the surface of the earth showed the customary ledges of barren +rock, the scraggy scattering of firs, and stretches of moss with which +he had become so familiar. Behind him the monorail, springing into space +from the crest of the hill, ended in the dangling wreckage of a trestle +which evidently had terminated in a station, now vanished, near the +tower. From his point of observation little of the results of the +upheaval was noticeable except the débris, which lay in a film of +shattered rock and gravel over the surface of the ground, but as he ran +toward the tower the damage caused by the Ray quickly became apparent.</p> + +<p>At the distance of two hundred yards from the base he paused astounded. +Why anything of the tower remained at all was a mystery, explicable only +by reason of the skeleton-like character of its construction. All about +it the surface had been rent as by an earthquake, and save for a +fragment of the dome or bombproof all trace of buildings had +disappeared. A glistening lake of leperous-like molten lead lay in the +centre of the crater, strangely iridescent. A broad path of destruction, +fifty yards or so in width, led from the scene of the disruption to the +precipice against which the Ray had played. The face of the cliff itself +seemed covered with a white coating or powder which gave it a ghostly +sheen. Moreover, the rain had turned to snow and already the entire +aspect of the valley had changed.</p> + +<p>Bennie stood wonderingly on the edge of this inferno. He was cold, +famished, horror-stricken. Like a flash in a pan the mechanism which had +rocked the earth and dislocated its axis had blown out; and there was +now nothing left to tell the story, for its inventor had flashed out +with it into eternity. At his very feet a conscious human being, only +twelve short hours before, had by virtue of his stupendous brain been +able to generate and control a force capable of destroying the planet +itself, and now——! He was gone! It was all gone! Unless somewhere hard +by was hovering amid the whirling snowflakes that which might be his +soul. But Pax would send no more messages! Bennie's journey had gone for +naught. He had arrived just too late to talk it all over with his +fellow-scientist, and discuss those little improvements on Hiroshito's +theory. Pax was dead!</p> + +<p>He sat down wearily, noticing for the first time that his ears pained +him. In his depression and excitement he had totally forgotten the Ring. +He wondered how he was ever going to get back to Cambridge. And then as +he raised his hand to adjust his Glengarry he saw it awaiting +him—unscathed. Far to the westward it rested snugly in its gigantic +nest of crossbeams, like the head of some colossal decapitated Chinese +mandarin. With an involuntary shout he started running down the valley, +heedless of his steps. Nearer and higher loomed the steel trestlework +upon which rested the giant engine. Panting, he blindly stumbled on, +mindful only of the momentous fact that Pax's secret was not lost.</p> + +<p>Fifty feet above the ground, supported upon a cylindrical trestle of +steel girders, rested the body of the car, constructed of aluminum +plates in the form of an anchor ring some seventy-five feet in diameter, +while over the circular structure of the Ring itself rose a skeleton +tower like a tripod, carrying at its summit a huge metal device shaped +like a thimble, the open mouth of which pointed downward through the +open centre of the machine. Obviously this must be the tractor or +radiant engine. There, too, swung far out from the side of the ring on a +framework of steel, was the thermic inductor which had played the +disintegrating Ray upon the Atlas Mountains and the great cannon of Von +Heckmann. The whole affair resembled nothing which he had ever conceived +of either in the air, the earth, or the waters under the earth, the +bizarre invention of a superhuman mind. It seemed as firmly anchored and +as immovable as the Eiffel Tower, and yet Bennie knew that the thing +could lift itself into the air and sail off like a ball of thistledown +before a breeze. He knew that it could do it, for he had seen it with +his own eyes.</p> + +<p>A few steps more brought him into the centre of the circle of steel +girders which supported the landing stage. Here the surface of the earth +at his feet had been completely denuded and the underlying rock exposed, +evidently by some artificial action, the downward blast of gas from the +tractor. Even the rock itself had been seared by the discharge; little +furrows worn smooth as if by a mountain torrent radiating in all +directions from the central point. More than anything it reminded Bennie +of the surface of a meteorite, polished and scarred by its rush through +the atmosphere. He paused, filled with a kind of awe. The most wonderful +engine of all time waited his inspection. The great secret was his +alone. The inventor and his associates had been wiped out of existence +in a flash, and the Flying Ring was his by every right of treasure +trove. In the heart of the Labrador wilderness Prof. Benjamin Hooker of +Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave an exultant shout, threw off his coat, +and swarmed up the steel ladder leading to the landing stage.</p> + +<p>He had ascended about halfway when a voice echoed among the girders. A +red face was peering down at him over the edge of the platform.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" said the face. "I'm all right, I guess."</p> + +<p>Bennie gripped tight hold of the ladder, stiff with fear. He thought +first of jumping down, changed his mind, and, shutting his eyes, +continued automatically climbing up the ladder.</p> + +<p>Then a hand gripped him under the arm and gave him a lift on to the +level floor of the platform. He steadied himself and opened his eyes. +Before him stood a man in blue overalls, under whose forehead, burned +bright red by the Labrador sun, a pair of blue eyes looked out vaguely. +The man appeared to be waiting for the visitor to make the next move. +"Good morning," said Bennie, sparring for time. "Well"—he +hesitated—"where were you when it happened?"</p> + +<p>The man looked at him stupidly. "What?" he mumbled. "I—I don't seem to +remember. You see—I was in—the condenser room building up the +charge—for to-morrow—I mean to-day—sixty thousand volts at the +terminals, and the fluid clearing up. I guess I looked out of the window +a minute—to see—the fireworks—and then—somehow—I was out on the +platform." He shaded his eyes and looked off down the valley at the +half-shattered, wrecked tower. "The wind and the smoke!" he muttered. +"The wind and the smoke—and the dust in my eyes—and now it's all gone +to hell! But I guess everything's all right now, if you want to fly." He +touched his cap automatically. "We can start whenever you are ready, +sir. You see I thought you were gone, too! That would have been a mess! +I'm sure you can handle the balancer without Perkins. Poor old Perk! And +Hoskins—and the others. All gone, by God! All wiped out! Only me and +you left, sir!" He laughed hysterically.</p> + +<p>"Bats in his belfry!" thought Bennie. "Something hit him!"</p> + +<p>Slowly it came over him that the half-stunned creature thought that he, +Bennie Hooker, was Pax, the Master of the World!</p> + +<p>He took the fellow by the arm. "Come on inside," he said. A plan had +already formulated itself in his brain. Even as he was the man might be +able to go through his customary duties in handling the Ring. It was not +impossible. He had heard of such things, and the thought of the long +marches over the frozen barrens and the perilous canoe trip down the +coast, contrasted with a swift rush for an hour or two through the +sunlit air, gave the professor the courage which might not have availed +him otherwise. At the top of a short ladder a trapdoor opened inward, +and Bennie found himself in a small compartment scarcely large enough to +turn around in, from which a second door opened into the body of the +Ring proper.</p> + +<p>"It's all right—to-day," said the man hesitatingly. "I fixed—the +air-lock—yesterday, sir. The leak—was here—at the hinge—but it's +quite tight—now." He pointed at the door.</p> + +<p>"Good," remarked Bennie. "I'll look around and see how things are."</p> + +<p>This seemed to him to be eminently safe—and allowing for a program of +investigation absolutely essential at the moment. Once he could master +the secret of the Ring and be sure that the part of the fellow's brain +which controlled the performance of his customary duties had not been +injured by the shock of the night before, it might be possible to carry +out the daring project which had suggested itself.</p> + +<p>Passing through the inner door of the air-lock he entered the chart room +of the Ring, followed stumblingly by his companion. It was warm and +cozy; the first warmth Hooker had experienced for nearly a month. It +made him feel faint, and he dropped into an armchair and pulled off his +Glengarry. The survivor of the explosion, standing awkwardly at his +side, fumbled with his cap. Ever and anon he rubbed his head.</p> + +<p>Bennie sank back into the cushions and looked about him. On the opposite +wall hung a map of the world on Mercator's Projection, and from a spot +in Northern Labrador red lines radiated in all directions, which formed +great curved loops, returning to the starting-point.</p> + +<p>"The flights of the Ring," thought Bennie. "There's the one where they +busted the Atlas Mountains," following with his eyes the crimson thread +which ran diagonally across the Atlantic, traversed Spain and the +Mediterranean, and circling in a narrow loop over the coast of Northern +Africa turned back into its original track. Visions came to him of +guiding the car for an afternoon jaunt across the Sahara, the gloomy +forests of the Congo, into the Antarctic, and thence home in time for +afternoon tea, via the Easter Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska. But why stop +there? What was to prevent a trip to the moon? Or Mars? Or for that +matter into the unknown realms outside the solar system—the fourth +dimension, perhaps—or even the fifth dimension——</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," said the machinist suddenly, "I just forgot—whether you +take—cigars or cigarettes. You see I only acted as—table +orderly—once—when Smith had that sprain." His hands moved uncertainly +on the shelves, beyond the map. The heart of Professor Hooker leaped.</p> + +<p>"Cigars!" he almost shouted.</p> + +<p>The man found a box of Havanas and struck a match.</p> + +<p>The bliss of it! And if there was tobacco there must be food and drink +as well. He began to feel strangely exhilarated. But how to handle the +man beside him? Pax would certainly never ask the questions that he +wished to ask. He smoked rapidly, thinking hard. Of course he might +pretend that he, too, had forgotten things. And at first this seemed to +be the only way out of the difficulty. Then he had an inspiration.</p> + +<p>"Look here," he remarked, rather severely. "Something's happened to you. +You say you've forgotten what occurred yesterday? How do I know but you +have forgotten everything you ever knew? You remember your name?"</p> + +<p>"My name, sir?" The man laughed in a foolish fashion. "Why—of course I +remember—my name. I wouldn't—be likely—to forget—that: +Atterbury—I'm Atterbury—electrician of the <i>Chimaera</i>." And he drew +himself up.</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Bennie, "but what were we doing yesterday? What +is the very last thing that you can go back to?"</p> + +<p>The man wrinkled his forehead. "The last thing? Why, sir, you told us +you were going—to turn over the pole a bit—and freeze up Europe. I was +up here—loading the condenser—when you cut me off from the alternator. +I opened the switch—and put on the electrometer to see—if we had +enough. Next—everything was clouded, and I went—over to the window to +see—what was going on."</p> + +<p>"Yes," commented Bennie approvingly, "all right so far. What happened +then?"</p> + +<p>"Why, after that, sir, after that, there was the Ray of course, and +er—I don't seem to remember—oh, yes, a short circuit—and I ran—out +on the platform—forgot all about the danger! After that, everything's +confused. It's like a dream. Your coming up—the ladder—seemed—to wake +me up." The machinist smiled sheepishly.</p> + +<p>The plan was working well. Professor Hooker was learning things fast.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that the two of us can fly the <i>Chimaera</i> south again?" he +asked, inspecting the map.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" answered Atterbury. "The balancer is working—better +now—and—doesn't take—much attention—and you can lay the course—and +manage—the landing. I was going to put a fresh uranium cylinder in the +tractor this morning—but I—forgot."</p> + +<p>"There you go, forgetting again!" growled Bennie, realizing that his +only excuse for asking questions hung on this fiction. And there were +many, many more questions that he must ask before he would be able to +fly. "You don't seem quite right in your coco this morning, Atterbury," +he said. "I think we'll look things over a bit—the condenser first."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir." Atterbury turned and groped his way through a doorway, +and they passed first into what appeared to be a storage-battery room. +Huge glass tanks filled with amber-coloured fluid, in which numerous +parallel plates were supported, lined the walls from floor to ceiling.</p> + +<p>An ammeter on the wall caught Bennie's attention. "Weston Direct Reading +A. C. Ammeter," he read on the dial. Alternate current! What were they +doing with an alternating current in the storage-battery room? His eyes +followed the wires along the wall. Yes, they ran to the terminals of the +battery. It dawned upon him that there might be something here undreamed +of in electrical engineering—a storage battery for an alternating +current!</p> + +<p>The electrician closed a row of switches, brought the two polished brass +spheres of the discharger within striking distance, and instantly a +blinding current of sparks roared between the terminals. He had been +right. This battery not only was charged by an alternating current, but +delivered one of high potential. He peered into the cells, racking his +brain for an explanation.</p> + +<p>"Atterbury," said he meditatively, "did I ever tell you why they do +that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the man. "You—told me—once. The two metals—in the +electrolyte—come down—on the plates—in alternate films—as—the +current changes direction. But you never told me—what the electrolyte +was—I don't suppose—you—would be willing to now, would you?"</p> + +<p>"H'm," said Bennie, "some time, maybe."</p> + +<p>But this cue was all that he required. A clever scheme! Pax had formed +layers of molecular thickness of two different metals in alternation by +the to-and-fro swing of his charging current. When the battery +discharged the metals went into solution, each plate becoming +alternately positive and negative. He wondered what Pax had used for an +electrolyte that enabled him to get a metallic deposit at each +electrode. And he wondered also why the metals did not alloy. But it +would not do for him to linger too long over a mere detail of equipment. +And he turned away to continue his tour of inspection, a tour which +occupied most of the morning, and during which he found a well-stocked +gallery and made himself a cup of coffee.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>But the more he learned about the mechanism of the Ring the greater +became his misgivings about undertaking the return journey alone with +Atterbury through the air. If they were to go, the start must be made +within a few days, for the condenser held its charge but a comparatively +short time, and its energy was necessary for starting the Ring. When +freshly charged it supplied current for the thermic inductor for nearly +three minutes, but the metallic films, deposited on the plates, +dissolved slowly in the fluid, and after three or four days there +remained only enough for a thirty-second run, hardly enough to lift the +Ring from the earth. Once in the air, the downward blast from the +tractor operated a turbine alternator mounted on a skeleton framework at +the centre of the Ring, and the current supplied by this machine enabled +the Ring to continue its flight indefinitely, or until the cylinder of +uranium was completely disintegrated.</p> + +<p>Yet to trek back over the route by which he had come appeared to be +equally impossible. There was little likelihood that the two Indians +would return; they were probably already thirty miles on their way back +to the coast. If only he could get word to Thornton or some of those +chaps at Washington they might send a relief expedition! But a ship +would be weeks in getting to the coast, and how could he live in the +meantime? There were provisions for only a few days in the Ring, and the +storehouse in the valley had been wiped out of existence. Only an +aeroplane could do the trick. And then he thought of Burke, his +classmate—Burke who had devoted his life to heavier-than-air machines, +and who, since his memorable flight across the Atlantic in the <i>Stormy +Petrol</i>, had been a national hero. Burke could reach him in ten hours, +but how could <i>he</i> reach Burke? In the heart of the frozen wilderness of +Labrador he might as well be on another planet, as far as communication +with the civilized world was concerned.</p> + +<p>A burst of sunlight shot through the window and formed an oval patch on +the floor at his feet. The weather was clearing. He went out upon the +platform. Patches of blue sky appeared overhead. As he gazed +disconsolately across the valley toward the tower, his eye caught the +glisten of something high in the air. From the top of the wreckage five +thin shining lines ran parallel across the sky and disappeared in a +small cloud which hung low over the face of the cliff.</p> + +<p>"The antennæ!" exclaimed Bennie. "A wireless to Burke." Burke would +come; he knew Burke. A thousand miles overland was nothing to him. +Hadn't he wagered five thousand dollars at the club that he would fly to +the pole and bring back Peary's flag—with no takers? Why, Burke would +take him home with as little trouble as a taxicab. And then, aghast, he +remembered the complete destruction in the valley. The wireless plant +had gone with the rest. He ran back into the chart room and called +Atterbury.</p> + +<p>"Can we get off a message to Washington?" he demanded. "The wires are +still up, and we have the condenser."</p> + +<p>"We might, sir, if it's not—a long one, though you've always said there +was danger in running the engine with the car bolted down. We did it the +time the big machine burnt out a coil. I can throw—a wire—over the +antennæ with a rocket—and join up—with the turbine machine. It will +increase—our wave length, but they ought to pick us up."</p> + +<p>"We'll try it, anyway," announced Bennie.</p> + +<p>He inspected the chart and measured the distance in an airline from +Boston to the point where the red lines converged. It was a trifle less +than the distance between Boston and Chicago. Burke had done that in +nine hours on the trial trip of his trans-Atlantic monoplane. If the +machine was in order and Burke started in the morning he would be with +them by sunset, if he didn't get lost. But Bennie knew that Burke could +drive his machine by dead reckoning and strike within a few leagues of a +target a thousand miles away.</p> + +<p>A muffled roar outside interrupted his musings, and running out on the +platform again he found Atterbury attaching the cord of the aluminum +ribbon, which the rocket had carried up and over the antennæ, to one of +the brush bars of the alternator.</p> + +<p>"Nearly ready, sir," he said. "We'd best—lock the storm bolts—to hold +her down—in case we have—to crowd on the power. We've got to +use—pretty near the full lift—to get the alternator up—to the proper +speed."</p> + +<p>A chill ran down Bennie's spine. They were going to start the engine! In +a moment he would be within twenty feet of a blast of disintegration +products capable of lifting the whole machine into the air, and it was +to be started at his command, after he had worked and pottered for two +years with a thermic inductor the size of a thimble! He felt as he used +to feel before taking a high dive, or as he imagined a soldier feels +when about to go under fire for the first time. How would it turn out? +Was he taking too much responsibility, and was Atterbury counting on him +for the management of details? He felt singularly helpless as he +reëntered the chart room to compose his message.</p> + +<p>He turned on the electric lamp which hung over the desk, for in the +fast-gathering dusk the interior of the Ring was in almost total +darkness. How should his message read? It must be brief: it must tell +the story, and, above all, it must be compelling.</p> + +<p>He was joined by the electrician.</p> + +<p>"I think—we are all—ready now," stammered the latter. "What will you +send, sir?"</p> + +<p>Bennie handed him a scrap of yellow paper, and Atterbury put on a pair +of dark amber glasses, to protect his eyes from the light of the spark.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Thornton, Naval Observatory, Washington:</i></p> + +<p>"Stranded fifty-four thirty-eight north, seventy-four eighteen +west. Have the Ring machine. Ask Burke come immediately. Life and +death matter.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">B. Hooker</span>."</p></div> + +<p>Atterbury read the message and then gazed blankly at Hooker.</p> + +<p>"I—don't—understand," he said.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, send it. I'll explain later." Together they went into the +condenser room.</p> + +<p>Atterbury mechanically pushed the brass balls in contact, shoved a +bundle of iron wires halfway through the core of a great coil, and +closed a switch. A humming sound filled the air, and a few seconds later +a glow of yellow light came in through the window. A cone of luminous +vapour was shooting downward through the centre of the Ring from the +tractor. At first it was soft and nebulous, but it increased rapidly in +brilliancy, and a dull roar, like that of a waterfall, added itself to +the hum of the alternating current in the wires. And now a third sound +came to his ears, the note of the turbine, low at first, but gradually +rising like the scream of a siren, and the floor of the Ring beneath his +feet throbbed with the vibration.</p> + +<p>Bennie forgot the dynamometer, forgot his message to Burke, was +conscious only that he had wakened a sleeping volcano. Then came the +crack of the sparks, and the room seemed filled with the glare of the +blue lightning, for Atterbury, with his telephones at his ears, staring +through his yellow glasses, was sending out the call for the Naval +Observatory.</p> + +<p>"NAA—NAA—P—A—X."</p> + +<p>Over and over again he sent the call, while in the meantime the +condenser built up its charge from the overflow of current from the +turbine generator. Then the electrician opened a switch, and the roar +outside diminished and finally ceased.</p> + +<p>"We can't listen—with the tractor running," he fretted. "The +static—from the discharge—would tear—our detector—to pieces." He +threw in the receiving instrument. For a few moments the telephones +spoke only the whisperings of the arctic aurora, and then suddenly the +faint cry of the answering spark was heard. Bennie watched the words as +the electrician's pencil scrawled along on the paper.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Waiting for you. Why don't you send? N.A.A."</p></div> + +<p>"They must have—called us before—while the discharge—was running +down," muttered Atterbury. "I think we can send—with the +condenser—now."</p> + +<p>He picked up the scrap of yellow paper, read it over, and threw out into +space the message which he did not understand.</p> + +<p>"O. K. Wait. Thornton," came in reply.</p> + +<p>Two hours later came a second message:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"P—A—X. Burke starts at daybreak. Expects reach you by nine P. M. +Asks you to show large beacon fire if possible.</p> + +<p>"THORNTON, N. A. A."</p></div> + +<p>"Hurrah!" cried Bennie. "Good for Burke! Atterbury, we're saved—saved, +do you hear! Go to bed now and don't ask any questions. And say, before +you go see if you can find me a glass of brandy."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was decided that Burke must land on the plateau above the cliff, and +here the material for the fire was collected. There was little enough of +it and it was hard work carrying the oil up the steep trail. At times +Bennie was almost in despair.</p> + +<p>"It won't burn half an hour," said he, surveying the pile. "And we ought +to be able to keep it going all night. There's plenty of stuff in the +valley, but we can't have him come down there, with the tower, the +antennæ, and all the rest of the mess."</p> + +<p>"We might—show him—the big Ray," ventured Atterbury. "The thing—can +be pointed up—and I can—keep the turbine running. You can start—the +fire—as soon as you—hear his motors—and I'll shut down—as soon as I +see your fire."</p> + +<p>"Good idea!" agreed Bennie. "Only don't run continuously. Show the Ray +for a minute every quarter of an hour, and on no account start up after +you see the fire. If he thought the vertical beam was a searchlight and +flew through it——" Bennie shuddered at the thought of Burke driving +his aeroplane through the Ray that had shattered the Atlas Mountains.</p> + +<p>So it was arranged. Half an hour after sunset Atterbury shut himself up +in the Ring, and while Bennie climbed the trail leading to his post on +the plateau, he heard the creaking of the great inductor as it slowly +turned on its trunions.</p> + +<p>It was pitch dark by the time he reached the pitifully small pile of +brush which they had collected, and he poured some of the oil over it +and sat down, drawing a blanket around his shoulders. He felt very much +alone. Suppose the inductor failed to work? Suppose Atterbury turned the +Ray on him? Suppose.... But his musings were shattered by a noise from +the valley, a sound like that of escaping steam, and a moment later the +Lavender Ray shot up toward the zenith. Bennie lay on his back and +watched it, mindful of the night before the last when he had watched the +Ray from the tower descending upon the cliff. He wondered if he should +see any meteorites kindle in its path, but nothing appeared and the Ray +died down, leaving everything in darkness again. Fifteen minutes passed +and again the ghostly beam shot up into the night sky. Bennie looked at +his watch. It was nearly half-past eight. The cold made him sleepy. He +drew the blanket about him....</p> + +<p>Two hours later through his half-dreams he caught the faint sound for +which he had been listening. At first he was not sure. It might be the +turbine alternator of the Ring running by its own inertia for some time +after the discharge had ceased. But no, it was growing louder +momentarily, and appeared to come from high up in the air. Now it died +away to nothingness, and now it swelled in volume, and again died away. +But at each subsequent recurrence it was louder than before. There was +no longer any doubt. Burke was coming! It was time to start the brush +pile. He lit match after match, only for the wind to blow them out. Yet +all the time the machine in the air was coming nearer, the roar of its +twin engines beating on the stillness of the Labrador night. In despair +Bennie threw himself flat on his face by the brush pile and made a tent +of the blanket, under which he at last succeeded in starting a blaze +among the oil-soaked twigs. Then he pushed the half-empty keg into the +fire, arose and stared up at the sky.</p> + +<p>The machine was somewhere directly above him—just where he could not +say. Presently the motors stopped. He shouted feebly, running up and +down with his eyes turned skyward, and several times nearly fell into +the fire. He wondered why it didn't appear. It seemed hours since the +motors stopped! Then unexpectedly against the black background of the +sky the great wings of the machine appeared, illuminated on their +underside by the light of the fire. Silently it swung around on its +descending spiral, instantly to be swallowed up in the darkness again, a +moment later reappearing from the opposite direction, this time low down +and headed straight for him. He jumped hastily to one side and fell +flat. The machine grounded, rose once or twice as it ran along the +ground, and came to a stop twenty yards from the fire. A man climbed +out, slowly removed his goggles, and shook himself. Bennie scrambled to +his feet and ran forward waving his hat.</p> + +<p>"Well, Hooker!" remarked the man. "What th' hell are you doing <i>here</i>? +You sure have some searchlight!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>How Hooker and Burke, under the guidance of Atterbury, who gradually +regained his normal mental status, explored and charted the valley of +the Ring is strictly no part of this tale which deals solely with the +end of War upon the Earth. But next day, after several hours of +excavation among the débris of the smelter, where Pax had extracted his +uranium from the pitch blend mined at the cliff, they uncovered eight +cylinders of the precious metal weighing about one hundred pounds +apiece—the fuel of the Flying Ring. Now they were safe. Nay, more: +universal space was theirs to traffic in.</p> + +<p>Curious as to the reason why Pax had isolated himself in this frozen +wilderness, they next examined the high cliffs which shut in the valley +on the west and against the almost perpendicular walls of which he had +played the Lavender Ray. These cliffs proved, as Bennie had already +suspected, to be a gigantic outcrop of pitchblende or black oxide of +uranium. He estimated that nature had stored more uranium in but one of +the abutments of this cliff than in all the known mines of the entire +world. This radioactive mountain was the fulcrum by which this modern +Archimedes had moved the earth. The vast amount of matter disintegrated +by the Ray and thrown off into space with a velocity a thousandfold +greater than the blast of a siege gun produced a back pressure or recoil +against the face of the cliff, which thus became the "thrust block" of +the force which had slowed down the period of the earth's rotation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The day of the start dawned with a blazing sun. From the landing stage +of the Ring Bennie could see stretching away to the east, west, and +south, the interminable plains, dotted with firs, which had formed the +natural barrier to the previous discovery of Pax's secret. Overhead the +dome of the sky fitted the horizon like an enormous shell—a shell +which, with a thrill, he realized that he could crack and escape from, +like a fledgling ready for its first flight. And yet in this moment of +triumph little Bennie Hooker felt the qualm which must inevitably come +to those who take their lives in their hands. An hour and he would be +either soaring Phoebus-like toward the south, or lying crushed and +mangled within a tangled mass of wreckage. Even here in this desolate +waste life seemed sweet, and he had much, so much to do. Wasn't it, +after all, a crazy thing to try to navigate the complicated mechanism +back to civilization? Yet something told him that unless he put his fate +to the test now he would never return. He had the utmost confidence in +Burke—he might never be able to secure his services again—no, it was +now or never. He entered the air-lock, closing and bolting the door, and +passed on into the chart room.</p> + +<p>At all events, he thought, they were no worse off than Pax when he had +made his first trial flight, and they were working with a proven +machine, tuned to its fullest efficiency, and one which apparently +possessed automatic stability. Atterbury had gone to the condenser room +and was waiting for the order to start, while Burke was making the final +adjustment of the gyroscopes which would put the Ring on its +predetermined course. He came through the door and joined Bennie.</p> + +<p>"Hooker," he said, "we're sure going to have some experience. If I can +keep her from turning over, I think I can manage her. The trouble will +come when we slant the tractor. I'm not sure how much depends on the +atmospheric valve, and how much on me. Things may happen quickly. If we +turn over we're done for."</p> + +<p>He held out his hand to Bennie, who gripped it tremulously.</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked the aviator, tossing away his cigarette, "we might as +well die now as any time!"</p> + +<p>He walked swiftly over to the speaking-tube which communicated with the +condenser room and blew sharply into it.</p> + +<p>"Let her go, <i>Gallagher</i>!" he directed.</p> + +<p>"My God!" ejaculated Bennie. "Wait a second, can't you?"</p> + +<p>But it was too late. He grabbed the rail, trembling. A humming sound +filled the air, and the gyroscopes slowly began to revolve. He looked up +through the window at the tractor, from which shot streaks of pale +vapour with a noise like escaping steam. Somehow it seemed alive.</p> + +<p>The Ring was throbbing as if it, too, was impregnated with life. The +discharge of the tractor had risen to a muffled roar. Shaking all over, +Bennie crossed to the inside window and looked across the inner space of +the Ring. As yet the yellow glow of the discharge was scarcely visible, +but the steel sides of the Ring danced and quivered, undulating in +waves, and, as the intensity of the blast increased and the turbine +commenced to revolve, everything outside went suddenly blurred and +indistinct.</p> + +<p>Dropping to his knees, Bennie looked down through the observation window +in the floor. A blinding cloud of yellow dust was driving out and away +from the base of the landing stage in the form of a gigantic ring. The +earth at their feet was hidden in whirls of vapour; and ripples of light +and shade chased each other outward in all directions, like shadows on +the bottom of a sandy pond rippled by a breeze. It made him dizzy to +look down there, and he arose from the window. Burke stood grimly at the +control, unmindful of his associate. Bennie crossed to the other side, +and as he passed the gyroscopes, the air from the swiftly spinning discs +blew back his hair. He could see nothing through the tumult that roared +down through the centre of the Ring, like a Niagara of hot steam shot +through with a pale yellow phosphorescent light. The floor quivered +under his feet, and ominous creaking and snapping sounds reverberated +through the outer shell, as the steel girders of the landing stage were +gradually relieved of its weight. Just as it seemed to him that +everything was going to pieces, suddenly there was silence, save for the +purr of the machinery, and Bennie felt his knees sink under him.</p> + +<p>"We're off!" cried Burke. "Watch out!"</p> + +<p>The floor swayed as the Ring, lifted by the tractor, swung to and fro +like a pendulum. Bennie threw himself upon his stomach. The earth was +dropping away from them like a stone. He felt a sickening sensation.</p> + +<p>"Two thousand feet already," gasped Burke. "The atmospheric valve is set +for five thousand. I'll make it ten! It will give us more room to +recover in—if anything—goes wrong!"</p> + +<p>He gave the knob another half turn and laid his hand lightly on the +lever which controlled the movements of the tractor. Bennie, flattened +against the window, gazed below. The great dust ring showed indistinctly +through a blue haze no longer directly beneath them, but a quarter of a +mile to the north. Evidently they were not rising vertically.</p> + +<p>The valley of the Ring looked like a black crack in a greenish-gray +desert of rock and moss, the landing stage like a tiny bird's nest. The +floor of the car moved slightly from side to side. Burke's face had gone +gray, and he crouched unsteadily, one hand gripping a steel bracket on +the wall.</p> + +<p>"My Lord!" he mumbled with dry lips. "My Lord!"</p> + +<p>Bennie, momentarily expecting annihilation, crawled on all fours to +Burke's side.</p> + +<p>The needle of the manometer indicated nine thousand five hundred feet, +and was rapidly nearing the next division. Suddenly Burke felt the lever +move slowly under his hand as though operated by some outside +intelligence, and at the same moment the axis of one gyroscope swung +slowly in a horizontal plane through an angle of nearly ninety degrees, +while that of the other dipped slightly from the vertical. Both men had +a ghastly feeling that the ghost of Pax had somehow returned and assumed +control of the car. Bennie rotated the map under the gyroscope until the +fine black line on the dial again lay across their destination. Then he +crept back to his window again. The earth, far below and dimly visible, +was sliding slowly northward, and the dust ring which marked their +starting-point now lay as a flattened ellipse on the distant horizon. +Beneath and behind them in their flight trailed a thin streak of pale +bluish fog—the wake of the Flying Ring.</p> + +<p>They were now searing the atmosphere at a height of nearly two miles, +and the car was flying on a firm and even keel. There was no sound save +the dull roar of the tractor and a slight humming from the vibration of +the light steel cables. Bennie no longer felt any disagreeable +sensation. A strange detachment possessed him. Dark forests, lakes, and +a mighty river appeared to the south—the Moisie—and they followed it +as a fishhawk might have done, until the wilderness broke away before +them and they saw the broad reach of the St. Lawrence streaked with the +smoke of ocean liners.</p> + +<p>And then he lost control of himself for the first time and sobbed like a +woman—not from fear, nor weariness, nor excitement, but for joy—the +joy of the true scientist who has sought the truth and found it, has +achieved that for mankind which but for him it would have lacked, +perchance, forever. And he looked up at Burke and smiled.</p> + +<p>The latter nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he remarked prosaically, "this is sure a little bit of all right! +All to the good!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE</h2> + + +<p>Meanwhile, during the weeks that Hooker had been engaged in finding the +valley of the Ring, unbelievable things had happened in world politics. +In spite of the fact that Pax, having decreed the shifting of the Pole +and the transformation of Central Europe into the Arctic zone, had +refused further communication with mankind, all the nations—and none +more zealously than the German Republic—had proceeded immediately to +withdraw their armies within their own borders, and under the personal +supervision of a General Commission to destroy all their armaments and +munitions of war. The lyddite bombs, manufactured in vast quantities by +the Krupps for the Relay Gun and all other high explosives, were used to +demolish the fortresses upon every frontier of Europe. The contents of +every arsenal was loaded upon barges and sunk in mid-Atlantic. And every +form of military organization, rank, service, and even uniform, was +abolished throughout the world.</p> + +<p>A coalition of nations was formed under a single general government, +known as the United States of Europe, which in coöperation with the +United States of North and South America, of Asia, and of Africa, +arranged for an annual world congress at The Hague, and which enforced +its decrees by means of an International Police. In effect all the +inhabitants of the globe came under a single control, as far as language +and geographical boundaries would permit. Each state enforced local +laws, but all were obedient to the higher law—the Law of +Humanity—which was uniform through the earth. If an individual offended +against the law of one nation, he was held to have offended against all, +and was dealt with as such. The international police needed no treaties +of extradition. The New York embezzler who fled to Nairobi was sent back +as a matter of course without delay.</p> + +<p>Any man was free to go and live where he chose, to manufacture, buy, and +sell as he saw fit. And, because the fear and shadow of war were +removed, the nations grew rich beyond the imagination of men; great +hospitals and research laboratories, universities, schools, and +kindergartens, opera houses, theatres, and gardens of every sort sprang +up everywhere, paid for no one quite knew how. The nations ceased to +build dreadnoughts, and instead used the money to send great troops of +children with the teachers travelling over the world. It was against the +law to own or manufacture any weapon that could be used to take human +life. And because the nations had nothing to fear from one another, and +because there were no scheming diplomatists and bureaucrats to make a +living out of imaginary antagonisms, people forgot that they were French +or German or Russian or English, just as the people of the United States +of America had long before practically disregarded the fact that they +came from Ohio or Oregon or Connecticut or Nevada. Russians with weak +throats went to live in Italy as a matter of course, and Spaniards who +liked German cooking settled in Münich.</p> + +<p>All this, of course, did not happen at once, but came about quite +naturally after the abolition of war. And after it had been done, +everybody wondered why it had not been done ten centuries before; and +people became so interested in destroying all the relics of that +despicable employment, warfare, that they almost forgot that the Man Who +Rocked the Earth had threatened that he would shift the axis of the +globe. So that when the day fixed by him came and everything remained +just as it always had been—and everybody still wore linen-mesh +underwear in Strassburg and flannels in Archangel—nobody thought very +much about it, or commented on the fact that the Flying Ring was no +longer to be seen. And the only real difference was that you could take +a P. & O. steamer at Marseilles and buy a through ticket to Tasili +Ahaggar—if you wanted to go there—and that the shores of the Sahara +became the Riviera of the world, crowded with health resorts and +watering-places—so that Pax had not lived in vain, nor Thornton, nor +Bill Hood, nor Bennie Hooker, nor any of them.</p> + +<p>The whole thing is a matter of record, as it should be. The +deliberations of Conference No. 2 broke up in a hubbub, just as Von +Helmuth and Von Koenitz had intended, and the transcripts of their +discussions proved to be not of the slightest scientific value. But in +the files of the old War Department—now called the Department for the +Alleviation of Poverty and Human Suffering—can be read the messages +interchanged between The Dictator of Human Destiny and the President of +the United States, together with all the reports and observations +relating thereto, including Professor Hooker's Report to the Smithsonian +Institute of his journey to the valley of the Ring and what he found +there. Only the secret of the Ring—of thermic induction and atomic +disintegration—in short, of the Lavender Ray, is his by right of +discovery, or treasure trove, or what you will, and so is his patent on +Hooker's Space-Navigating Car, in which he afterward explored the solar +system and the uttermost regions of the sidereal ether. But that shall +be told hereafter.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1] +</span></a> The Germans were unwilling to surrender the use of the +words "Empire" and "Imperial," even after they had adopted a republican +form of government.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2] +</span></a> The President of the United States also voted in the +negative.</p></div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3] +</span></a> Up to the date of the armistice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label"> +[4]</span></a> Along the St. Lawrence and the Labrador coast a salmon +fisherman is always spoken of by natives and local residents as an +"officer," the reason being that most of the sportsmen who visit these +waters are English army officers. Hence salmon fishermen are universally +termed "officers," and a habitan will describe the sportsmen who have +rented a certain river as "<i>les officiers de la Moisie</i>" or "<i>les +officiers de la Romaine</i>."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label"> +[5]</span></a> He even climbed with Atterbury to the very summit of the +tractor, where he discovered that his original guess had been correct +and that the car rose from the earth rocket fashion, due to the back +pressure of the radiant discharge from a massive cylinder of uranium +contained in the tractor. Against this block played a disintegrating ray +from a small thermic inductor, the inner construction of which he was +not able to determine, although it was obviously different from his own, +and the coils were wound in a curious manner which he did not +understand. There might be something in Hiroshito's theory after all. +The cylinder of the tractor pointed directly downward so that the blast +was discharged through the very centre of the Ring, but it could be +swung through a small angle in any direction, and by means of this +slight deflection the horizontal motion of the machine secured. Perhaps +the most interesting feature of the mechanism was that the Ring appeared +to have automatic stability, for the angle of the direction in which the +tractor was pointed was controlled not only by a pair of gyroscopes +which kept the Ring on an even keel, but also by a manometric valve +causing it to fly at a fixed height above the earth's surface. Should it +start to rise, the diminished pressure of the atmosphere operating on +the valve swung the tractor more to one side, and the horizontal +acceleration was thus increased at the expense of the vertical.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man Who Rocked the Earth, by +Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH *** + +***** This file should be named 19174-h.htm or 19174-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/7/19174/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Man Who Rocked the Earth + +Author: Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +Release Date: September 4, 2006 [EBook #19174] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _The_ MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH + + By ARTHUR TRAIN AND ROBERT WILLIAMS WOOD + + + + + Reprint Edition 1974 by Arno Press Inc. + A New York Times Company + New York--1975 + + SCIENCE FICTION ADVISORY EDITORS + _R. Reginald_ + _Douglas Menville_ + + Copyright (C) 1915 by Doubleday, Page & Company + + _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign + languages, including the Scandinavian_ + + Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Robert W. Wood + + Reprinted from a copy in The Library + of the University of California, Riverside + + Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data + + Train, Arthur Cheney, 1875-1945. + The man who rocked the earth. + + (Science fiction) + Reprint of the ed. published by Doubleday, Page, + Garden City, N. Y. + + I. Wood, Robert Williams, 1868-1955, joint author. + II. Title. III. Series. + PZ3.T682Mak6 [PS3539.R23] 813'.5'2 74-16523 + ISBN 0-405-06315-6 + + + + +THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH + + + _"I thought, too, of the first and most significant realization + which the reading of astronomy imposes: that of the exceeding + delicacy of the world's position; how, indeed, we are dependent + for life, and all that now is, upon the small matter of the tilt + of the poles; and that we, as men, are products, as it were, not + only of earth's precarious position, but of her more precarious + tilt."_--W. L. COMFORT, Nov., 1914 + +[Illustration: INSTANTLY THE EARTH BLEW UP LIKE A CANNON--UP INTO THE +AIR, A THOUSAND MILES UP] + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +By July 1, 1916, the war had involved every civilized nation upon the +globe except the United States of North and of South America, which had +up to that time succeeded in maintaining their neutrality. Belgium, +Holland, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Austria Hungary, Lombardy, and +Servia, had been devastated. Five million adult male human beings had +been exterminated by the machines of war, by disease, and by famine. Ten +million had been crippled or invalided. Fifteen million women and +children had been rendered widows or orphans. Industry there was none. +No crops were harvested or sown. The ocean was devoid of sails. +Throughout European Christendom women had taken the place of men as +field hands, labourers, mechanics, merchants, and manufacturers. The +amalgamated debt of the involved nations, amounting to more than +$100,000,000,000, had bankrupted the world. Yet the starving armies +continued to slaughter one another. + +Siberia was a vast charnel-house of Tartars, Chinese, and Russians. +Northern Africa was a holocaust. Within sixty miles of Paris lay an army +of two million Germans, while three million Russians had invested +Berlin. In Belgium an English army of eight hundred and fifty thousand +men faced an equal force of Prussians and Austrians, neither daring to +take the offensive. + +The inventive genius of mankind, stimulated by the exigencies of war, +had produced a multitude of death-dealing mechanisms, most of which had +in turn been rendered ineffective by some counter-invention of another +nation. Three of these products of the human brain, however, remained +unneutralized and in large part accounted for the impasse at which the +hostile armies found themselves. One of these had revolutionized warfare +in the field, and the other two had destroyed those two most important +factors of the preliminary campaign--the aeroplane and the submarine. +The German dirigibles had all been annihilated within the first ten +months of the war in their great cross-channel raid by Pathe contact +bombs trailed at the ends of wires by high-flying French planes. This, +of course, had from the beginning been confidently predicted by the +French War Department. But by November, 1915, both the allied and the +German aerial fleets had been wiped from the clouds by Federston's +vortex guns, which by projecting a whirling ring of air to a height of +over five thousand feet crumpled the craft in mid-sky like so many +butterflies in a simoon. + +The second of these momentous inventions was Captain Barlow's device for +destroying the periscopes of submarines, thus rendering them blind and +helpless. Once they were forced to the surface such craft were easily +destroyed by gun fire or driven to a sullen refuge in protecting +harbours. + +The third, and perhaps the most vital, invention was Dufay's +nitrogen-iodide pellets, which when sown by pneumatic guns upon the +slopes of a battlefield, the ground outside intrenchments, or round the +glacis of a fortification made approach by an attacking army impossible +and the position impregnable. These pellets, only the size of No. 4 bird +shot and harmless out of contact with air, became highly explosive two +minutes after they had been scattered broadcast upon the soil, and any +friction would discharge them with sufficient force to fracture or +dislocate the bones of the human foot or to put out of service the leg +of a horse. The victim attempting to drag himself away inevitably +sustained further and more serious injuries, and no aid could be given +to the injured, as it was impossible to reach them. A field well planted +with such pellets was an impassable barrier to either infantry or +cavalry, and thus any attack upon a fortified position was doomed to +failure. By surprise alone could a general expect to achieve a victory. +Offensive warfare had come almost to a standstill. + +Germany had seized Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. Italy had annexed +Dalmatia and the Trentino; and a new Slav republic had arisen out of +what had been Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, Roumania, +Montenegro, Albania, and Bulgaria. Turkey had vanished from the map of +Europe; while the United States of South America, composed of the +Spanish-speaking South American Republics, had been formed. The +mortality continued at an average of two thousand a day, of which 75 per +cent. was due to starvation and the plague. Maritime commerce had ceased +entirely, and in consequence of this the merchant ships of all nations +rotted at the docks. + +The Emperor of Germany, and the kings of England and of Italy, had all +voluntarily abdicated in favour of a republican form of government. +Europe and Asia had run amuck, hysterical with fear and blood. As well +try to pacify a pack of mad and fighting dogs as these frenzied myriads +with their half-crazed generals. They lay, these armies, across the fair +bosom of the earth like dying monsters, crimson in their own blood, yet +still able to writhe upward and deal death to any other that might +approach. They were at a deadlock, yet each feared to make the first +overtures for peace. There was, in actuality, no longer even an English +or a German nation. It was an orgy of homicide, in which the best of +mankind were wantonly destroyed, leaving only the puny, the +feeble-minded, the deformed, and the ineffectual to perpetuate the race. + + + + +I + + +It was three minutes past three postmeridian in the operating room of +the new Wireless Station recently installed at the United States Naval +Observatory at Georgetown. Bill Hood, the afternoon operator, was +sitting in his shirt sleeves with his receivers at his ears, smoking a +corncob pipe and awaiting a call from the flagship _Lincoln_ of the +North Atlantic Patrol with which, somewhere just off Hatteras, he had +been in communication a few moments before. The air was quiet. + +Hood was a fat man, and so of course good-natured; but he was serious +about his work and hated all interfering amateurs. Of late these +wireless pests had become particularly obnoxious, as practically +everything was sent out in code and they had nothing with which to +occupy themselves. But it was a hot day and none of them seemed to be at +work. On one side of his desk a tall thermometer indicated that the +temperature of the room was 91 degrees Fahrenheit; on the other a big +clock, connected with some extraneous mechanism by a complicated system +of brass rods and wires, ticked off the minutes and seconds with a +peculiar metallic self-consciousness, as if aware of its own importance +in being the official timepiece, as far as there was an official +timepiece, for the entire United States of America. + +Hood from time to time tested his converters and detector, and then +resumed his non-official study of the adventures of a great detective +who pursued the baffling criminal by the aid of all the latest +scientific discoveries. Hood thought it was good stuff, although at the +same time he knew, of course, that it was rot. He was a practical man of +little imagination, and, though the detective did not interest him +particularly, he liked the scientific part of the stories. He was +thrifty, of Scotch-Irish descent, and at two minutes past three had +never had an adventure in his life. At three minutes past three he began +his career as one of the celebrities of the world. + +As the minute hand of the official clock dropped into its slot somebody +called the Naval Observatory. The call was so faint as to be barely +audible, in spite of the fact that Hood's instrument was tuned for a +three-thousand-metre wave. Supposing quite naturally that the person +calling had a shorter wave, he gradually cut out the inductance of his +receiver; but the sound faded out entirely, and he returned to his +original inductance and shunted in his condenser, upon which the call +immediately increased in volume. Evidently the other chap was using a +big wave, bigger than Georgetown. + +Hood puckered his brows and looked about him. Lying on a shelf above his +instrument was one of the new ballast coils that Henderson had used with +the long waves from lightning flashes, and he leaned over and connected +the heavy spiral of closely wound wire, throwing it into his circuit. +Instantly the telephones spoke so loud that he could hear the shrill cry +of the spark even from where the receivers lay beside him on the table. +Quickly fastening them to his ears he listened. The sound was clear, +sharp, and metallic, and vastly higher in pitch than a ship's call. It +couldn't be the _Lincoln_. + +"By gum!" muttered Hood. "That fellow must have a twelve-thousand-metre +wave length with fifty kilowatts behind it, sure! There ain't another +station in the world but this can pick him up!" + +"NAA--NAA--NAA," came the call. + +Throwing in his rheostat he sent an "O.K" in reply, and waited +expectantly, pencil in hand. A moment more and he dropped his pencil in +disgust. + +"Just another bug!" he remarked aloud to the thermometer. "Ought to be +poisoned! What a whale of a wave length, though!" + +For several minutes he listened intently, for the amateur was sending +insistently, repeating everything twice as if he meant business. + +"He's a jolly joker all right," muttered Hood, this time to the clock. +"Must be pretty hard up for something to do!" + +Then he laughed out loud and took up the pencil again. This amateur, +whoever he was, was almost as good as his detective story. The "bug" +called the Naval Observatory once more and began repeating his entire +message for the third time. + +"To all mankind"--he addressed himself modestly--"To all mankind--To all +mankind--I am the dictator--of human destiny--Through the earth's +rotation--I control--day and night--summer and winter--I command +the--cessation of hostilities and--the abolition of war upon the +globe--I appoint the--United States--as my agent for this purpose--As +evidence of my power I shall increase the length of the day--from +midnight to midnight--of Thursday, July 22d, by the period of five +minutes.--PAX." + +The jolly joker, having repeated thus his extraordinary message to all +mankind, stopped sending. + +"Well, I'll be hanged!" gasped Bill Hood. Then he wound up his magnetic +detector and sent an answering challenge into the ether. + +"Can--the--funny--stuff!" he snapped. "And tune out--or--we'll +revoke--your license!" + +"What a gall!" he grunted, folding up the yellow sheet of pad paper upon +which he had taken down the message to all mankind and thrusting it into +his book for a marker. "All the fools aren't dead yet!" + +Then he picked up the _Lincoln_ and got down to real work. The "bug" and +his message passed from memory. + + + + +II + + +The following Thursday afternoon a perspiring and dusty stranger from +St. Louis, who, with the Metropolitan Art Museum as his objective, was +trudging wearily through Central Park, New York City, at two o'clock, +paused to gaze with some interest at the obelisk known as Cleopatra's +Needle. The heat rose in shimmering waves from the asphalt of the +roadway, but the stranger was used to heat and he was conscientiously +engaged in the duty of seeing New York. Opposite the Museum he seated +himself upon a bench in the shade of a faded dogwood and wiped the +moisture from his eyes. The glare from the unprotected boulevards was +terrific. Under these somewhat unfavourable conditions he was occupied +in studying the monument of Egypt's past magnificence when he felt a +slight dragging sensation. It was indefinable and had no visual +concomitant. But it was as though the brakes were being gently applied +to a Pullman train. He was the only human being in the neighbourhood; +not even a policeman was visible; and the experience gave him a creepy +feeling. Then to his amazement Cleopatra's Needle slowly toppled from +its pedestal and fell with a crash across the roadway. At first he +thought it an optical illusion and wiped his eyes again, but it was +nothing of the kind. The monument, which had a moment before pointed to +the zenith, now lay shattered in three pieces upon the softening +concrete of the drive. The stranger arose and examined the fragments of +the monolith, one of which lay squarely across the road, barring all +passage. Round the pedestal were scattered small pieces of broken +granite, and from these, after looking about cautiously, he chose one +with care and placed it in his pocket. + +"Gosh!" he whispered to himself as he hurried toward Fifth Avenue. +"That'll just be something to tell 'em at home! Eh, Bill?" + +The dragging sensation experienced by the tourist from St. Louis was +felt by many millions of people all over the world, but, as in most +countries it occurred coincidently with pronounced earthquake shocks and +tremblings, for the most part it passed unnoticed as a specific, +individual phenomenon. + +Hood, in the wireless room at Georgetown, suddenly heard in his +receivers a roar like that of Niagara and quickly removed them from his +ears. He had never known such statics. He was familiar with electrical +disturbances in the ether, but this was beyond anything in his +experience. Moreover, when he next tried to use his instruments he +discovered that something had put the whole apparatus out of commission. +About an hour later he felt a pronounced pressure in his eardrums, which +gradually passed off. The wireless refused to work for nearly eight +hours, and it was still recalcitrant when he went off duty at seven +o'clock. He had not felt the quivering of the earth round Washington, +and being an unimaginative man he accepted the other facts of the +situation philosophically. The statics would pass, and then Georgetown +would be in communication with the rest of the world again, that was +all. At seven o'clock the night shift came in, and Hood borrowed a +pipeful of tobacco from him and put on his coat. + +"Say, Bill, did you feel the shock?" asked the shift, hanging up his hat +and taking a match from Hood. + +"No," answered the latter, "but the statics have put the machine on the +blink. She'll come round all right in an hour or so. The air's gummy +with ions. Shock, did you say?" + +"Sure. Had 'em all over the country. Say, the boys at the magnetic +observatory claim their compass shifted east and west instead of north +and south, and stayed that way for five minutes. Didn't you feel the air +pressure? I should worry! And say, I just dropped into the +Meteorological Department's office and looked at the barometer. She'd +jumped up half an inch in about two seconds, wiggled round some, and +then come back to normal. You can see the curve yourself if you ask +Fraser to show you the self-registering barograph. Some doin's, I tell +you!" + +He nodded his head with an air of importance. + +"Take your word for it," answered Hood without emotion, save for a +slight annoyance at the other's arrogation of superior information. +"'Tain't the first time there's been an earthquake since creation." And +he strolled out, swinging to the doors behind him. + +The night shift settled himself before the instruments with a look of +dreary resignation. + +"Say," he muttered aloud, "you couldn't jar that feller with a +thirteen-inch bomb! He wouldn't even rub himself!" + +Hood, meantime, bought an evening paper and walked slowly to the +district where he lived. It was a fine night and there was no particular +excitement in the streets. His wife opened the door. + +"Well," she greeted him, "I'm glad you've come home at last. I was plumb +scared something had happened to you. Such a shaking and rumbling and +rattling I never did hear! Did you feel it?" + +"I didn't feel nothin'!" answered Bill Hood. "Some one said there was a +shock, that was all I heard about it. The machine's out of kilter." + +"They won't blame you, will they?" she asked anxiously. + +"You bet they won't!" he replied. "Look here, I'm hungry. Are the +waffles ready?" + +"Have 'em in a jiffy!" she smiled. "You go in and read your paper." + +He did as he was directed, and seated himself in a rocker under the +gaslight. After perusing the baseball news he turned back to the front +page. The paper was a fairly late edition, containing up-to-the-minute +telegraphic notes. In the centre column, alongside the announcement of +the annihilation of three entire regiments of Silesians by the explosion +of nitroglycerine concealed in dummy gun carriages, was the following: + + CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE FALLS + + EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS FAMOUS MONUMENT + + SHOCKS FELT HERE AND ALL OVER U. S. + + Washington was visited by a succession of earthquake shocks early + this afternoon, which, in varying force, were felt throughout the + United States and Europe. Little damage was done, but those having + offices in tall buildings had an unpleasant experience which they + will not soon forget. A peculiar phenomenon accompanying this + seismic disturbance was the variation of the magnetic needle by over + eighty degrees from north to east and an extraordinary rise and fall + of the barometer. All wireless communication had to be abandoned, + owing to the ionizing of the atmosphere, and up to the time this + edition went to press had not been resumed. Telegrams by way of + Colon report similar disturbances in South America. In New York the + monument in Central Park known as Cleopatra's Needle was thrown from + its pedestal and broken into three pieces. The contract for its + repair and replacement has already been let. The famous monument was + a present from the Khedive of Egypt to the United States, and + formerly stood in Alexandria. The late William H. Vanderbilt + defrayed the expense of transporting it to this country. + +Bill Hood read this with scant interest. The Giants had knocked the +Braves' pitcher out of the box, and an earthquake seemed a small matter. +His mind did not once revert to the mysterious message from Pax the day +before. He was thinking of something far more important. + +"Say, Nellie," he demanded, tossing aside the paper impatiently, "ain't +those waffles ready yet?" + + + + +III + + +On that same evening, Thursday, July 22d, two astronomers attached to +the Naval Observatory sat in the half darkness of the meridian-circle +room watching the firmament sweep slowly across the aperture of the +giant lens. The chamber was as quiet as the grave, the two men rarely +speaking as they noted their observations. Paris might be taken, Berlin +be razed, London put to the torch; a million human beings might be blown +into eternity, or the shrieks of mangled creatures lying in heaps before +pellet-strewn barbed-wire entanglements rend the summer night; great +battleships of the line might plunge to the bottom, carrying their crews +with them; and the dead of two continents rot unburied--yet unmoved the +stars would pursue their nightly march across the heavens, cruel day +would follow pitiless night, and the careless earth follow its +accustomed orbit as though the race were not writhing in its death +agony. Gazing into the infinity of space human existence seemed but the +scum upon a rainpool, human warfare but the frenzy of insectivora. +Unmindful of the starving hordes of Paris and Berlin, of plague-swept +Russia, or of the drowned thousands of the North Baltic Fleet, these two +men calmly studied the procession of the stars--the onward bore of the +universe through space, and the spectra of newborn or dying worlds. + +It was a suffocatingly hot night and their foreheads reeked with sweat. +Dim shapes on the walls of the room indicated what by day was a tangle +of clockwork and recording instruments, connected by electricity with +various buttons and switches upon the table. The brother of the big +clock in the wireless operating room hung nearby, its face illuminated +by a tiny electric lamp, showing the hour to be eleven-fifty. +Occasionally the younger man made a remark in a low tone, and the elder +wrote something on a card. + +"The 'seeing' is poor to-night," said Evarts, the younger man. "The +upper air is full of striae and, though it seems like a clear night, +everything looks dim--a volcanic haze probably. Perhaps the Aleutian +Islands are in eruption again." + +"Very likely," answered Thornton, the elder astronomer. "The shocks this +afternoon would indicate something of the sort." + +"Curious performance of the magnetic needle. They say it held due east +for several minutes," continued Evarts, hoping to engage his senior in +conversation--almost an impossibility, as he well knew. + +Thornton did not reply. He was carefully observing the infinitesimal +approach of a certain star to the meridian line, marked by a thread +across the circle's aperture. When that point of light should cross the +thread it would be midnight, and July 22, 1916, would be gone forever. +Every midnight the indicating stars crossed the thread exactly on time, +each night a trifle earlier than the night before by a definite and +calculable amount, due to the march of the earth around the sun. So they +had crossed the lines in every observatory since clocks and telescopes +had been invented. Heretofore, no matter what cataclysm of nature had +occurred, the star had always crossed the line not a second too soon or +a second too late, but exactly on time. It was the one positively +predictable thing, foretellable for ten or for ten thousand years by a +simple mathematical calculation. It was surer than death or the tax-man. +It was absolute. + +Thornton was a reserved man of few words--impersonal, methodical, +serious. He spent many nights there with Evarts, hardly exchanging a +phrase with him, and then only on some matter immediately concerned with +their work. Evarts could dimly see his long, grave profile bending over +his eyepiece, shrouded in the heavy shadows across the table. He felt a +great respect, even tenderness, for this taciturn, high-principled, +devoted scientist. He had never seen him excited, hardly ever aroused. +He was a man of figures, whose only passion seemed to be the "music of +the spheres." + +A long silence followed, during which Thornton seemed to bend more +intently than ever over his eyepiece. The hand of the big clock slipped +gradually to midnight. + +"There's something wrong with the clock," said Thornton suddenly, and +his voice sounded curiously dry, almost unnatural. "Telephone to the +equatorial room for the time." + +Puzzled by Thornton's manner Evarts did as instructed. + +"Forty seconds past midnight," came the reply from the equatorial +observer. + +Evarts repeated the answer for Thornton's benefit, looking at their own +clock at the same time. It pointed to exactly forty seconds past the +hour. He heard Thornton suppress something like an oath. + +"There's something the matter!" repeated Thornton dumbly. "Aeta isn't +within five minutes of crossing. Both clocks can't be wrong!" + +He pressed a button that connected with the wireless room. + +"What's the time?" he called sharply through the nickel-plated +speaking-tube. + +"Forty-five seconds past the hour," came the answer. Then: "But I want +to see you, sir. There's something queer going on. May I come in?" + +"Come!" almost shouted Thornton. + +A moment later the flushed face of Williams, the night operator, +appeared in the doorway. + +"Excuse me, sir," he stammered, "but something fierce must have +happened! I thought you ought to know. The Eiffel Tower has been trying +to talk to us for over two hours, but I can't get what he's saying." + +"What's the matter--atmospherics?" snapped Evarts. + +"No; the air _was_ full of them, sir--shrieking with them you might say; +but they've stopped now. The trouble has been that I've been jammed by +the Brussels station talking to the Belgian Congo--same wave length--and +I couldn't tune Brussels out. Every once in a while I'd get a word of +what Paris was saying, and it's always the same word--'_heure_.' But +just now Brussels stopped sending and I got the complete message of the +Eiffel Tower. They wanted to know our time by Greenwich. I gave it to +'em. Then Paris said to tell you to take your transit with great care +and send result to them immediately----" + +The ordinarily calm Thornton gave a great suspiration and his face was +livid. "Aeta's just crossed--we're five minutes out! Evarts, am I crazy? +Am I talking straight?" + +Evarts laid his hand on the other's arm. + +"The earthquake's knocked out your transit," he suggested. + +"And Paris--how about Paris?" asked Thornton. He wrote something down on +a card mechanically and started for the door. "Get me the Eiffel Tower!" +he ordered Williams. + +The three men stood motionless, as the wireless man sent the Eiffel +Tower call hurtling across the Atlantic: + +"ETA--ETA--ETA." + +"All right," whispered Williams, "I've got 'em." + +"Tell Paris that our clocks are all out five minutes according to the +meridian." + +Williams worked the key rapidly, and then listened. + +"The Eiffel Tower says that their chronometers also appear to be out by +the same time, and that Greenwich and Moscow both report the same thing. +Wait a minute! He says Moscow has wired that at eight o'clock last +evening a tremendous aurora of bright yellow light was seen to the +northwest, and that their spectroscopes showed the helium line only. He +wants to know if we have any explanation to offer----" + +"Explanation!" gasped Evarts. "Tell Paris that we had earthquake shocks +here together with violent seismic movements, sudden rise in barometer, +followed by fall, statics, and erratic variation in the magnetic +needle." + +"What does it all mean?" murmured Thornton, staring blankly at the +younger man. + +The key rattled and the rotary spark whined into a shriek. Then silence. + +"Paris says that the same manifestations have been observed in Russia, +Algeria, Italy, and London," called out Williams. "Ah! What's that? +Nauen's calling." Again he sent the blue flame crackling between the +coils. "Nauen reports an error of five minutes in their meridian +observations according to the official clocks. And hello! He says Berlin +has capitulated and that the Russians began marching through at +daylight--that is about two hours ago. He says he is about to turn the +station over to the Allied Commissioners, who will at once assume +charge." + +Evarts whistled. + +"How about it?" he asked of Thornton. + +The latter shook his head gravely. + +"It may be--explainable--or," he added hoarsely, "it may mean the end of +the world." + +Williams sprang from his chair and confronted Thornton. + +"What do you mean?" he almost shouted. + +"Perhaps the universe is running down!" said Evarts soothingly. "At any +rate, keep it to yourself, old chap. If the jig is up there's no use +scaring people to death a month or so too soon!" + +Thornton grasped an arm of each. + +"Not a word of this to anybody!" he ground out through compressed lips. +"Absolute silence, or hell may break loose on earth!" + + + + +IV + + +Free translation of the Official Report of the Imperial Commission of +the Berlin Academy of Science to the Imperial Commissioners of the +German Federated States: + + The unprecedented cosmic phenomena which occurred on the 22d and + 27th days of the month of July, and which were felt over the entire + surface of the globe, have left a permanent effect of such + magnitude on the position of the earth's axis in space and the + duration of the period of the rotation, that it is impossible to + predict at the present time the ultimate changes or modifications + in the climatic conditions which may follow. This commission has + considered most carefully the possible causes that may have been + responsible for this catastrophe--(_Weltunfall_)--and by + eliminating every hypothesis that was incapable of explaining all + of the various disturbances, is now in a position to present two + theories, either one of which appears to be capable of explaining + the recent disturbances. + + The phenomena in question may be briefly summarized as follows; + + 1. THE YELLOW AURORA. In Northern Europe this appeared suddenly on + the night of July 22d as a broad, faint sheaf--(_Lichtbuendel_)--of + clear yellow light in the western sky. Reports from America show + that at Washington it appeared in the north as a narrow shaft of + light, inclined at an angle of about thirty degrees with the + horizon, and shooting off to the east. Near the horizon it was + extremely brilliant, and the spectroscope showed that the light was + due to glowing helium gas. + + The Potsdam Observatory reported that the presence of sodium has + been detected in the aurora; but this appears to have been a mistake + due to the faintness of the light and the circumstance that no + comparison spectrum was impressed on the plate. On the photograph + made at the Washington Observatory the helium line is certain, as a + second exposure was made with a sodium flame; and the two lines are + shown distinctly separated. + + 2. THE NEGATIVE ACCELERATION. This phenomenon was observed + to a greater or less extent all over the globe. It was especially + marked near the equator; but in Northern Europe it was noted by only + a few observers, though many clocks were stopped and other + instruments deranged. There appears to be no doubt that a force of + terrific magnitude was applied in a tangential direction to the + surface of the earth, in such a direction as to oppose its axial + rotation, with the effect that the surface velocity was diminished + by about one part in three hundred, resulting in a lengthening of + the day by five minutes, thirteen and a half seconds. + + The application of this brake--(_Bremsekraft_), as we may term + it--caused acceleration phenomena to manifest themselves precisely + as on a railroad train when being brought to a stop. The change in + the surface speed of the earth at the equator has amounted to about + 6.4 kilometres an hour; and various observations show that this + change of velocity was brought about by the operation of the unknown + force for a period of time of less than three minutes. The negative + acceleration thus represented would certainly be too small to + produce any marked physiological sensations, and yet the reports + from various places indicate that they were certainly observed. The + sensations felt are usually described as similar to those + experienced in a moving automobile when the brake is very gently + applied. + + Moreover, certain destructive actions are reported from localities + near the equator--chimneys fell and tall buildings swayed; while + from New York comes the report that the obelisk in Central Park was + thrown from its pedestal. It appears that these effects were due to + the circumstance that the alteration of velocity was propagated + through the earth as a wave similar to an earthquake wave, and that + the effects were cumulative at certain points--a theory that is + substantiated by reports that at certain localities, even near the + equator, no effects were noted. + + 3. TIDAL WAVES. These were observed everywhere and were + very destructive in many places. In the Panama Canal, which is near + the equator and which runs nearly east and west, the sweep of the + water was so great that it flowed over the Gatun Lock. On the + eastern coasts of the various continents there was a recession of + the sea, the fall of the tide being from three to five metres below + the low-water mark. On the western coasts there was a corresponding + rise, which in some cases reached a level of over twelve metres. + + That the tidal phenomena were not more marked and more destructive + is a matter of great surprise, and has been considered as evidence + that the retarding force was not applied at a single spot on the + earth's surface, but was a distributed force, which acted on the + water as well as on the land, though to a less extent. It is + difficult, however, to conceive of a force capable of acting in such + a way; and Bjoernson's theory of the magnetic vortex in the ether has + been rejected by this commission. + + 4. ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. Some time after the appearance + of the yellow aurora a sudden rise in atmospheric pressure, followed + by a gradual fall considerably below the normal pressure, was + recorded over the entire surface of the globe. Calculations based on + the time of arrival of this disturbance at widely separated points + show that it proceeded with the velocity of sound from a point + situated probably in Northern Labrador. The maximum rise of pressure + recorded was registered at Halifax, the self-recording barographs + showing that the pressure rose over six centimetres in less than + five minutes. + + 5. SHIFT IN DIRECTION OF THE EARTH'S AXIS. The axis of the + earth has been shifted in space by the disturbance and now points + almost exactly toward the double star Delta Ursae Minoris. This + change appears to have resulted from the circumstance that the force + was applied to the surface of the globe in a direction not quite + parallel to the direction of rotation, the result being the + development of a new axis and a shift in the positions of the poles, + which it will now be necessary to rediscover. + + It appears that these most remarkable cosmic phenomena can be + explained in either of two ways: they may have resulted from an + explosive or volcanic discharge from the surface of the earth, or + from the oblique impact of a meteoric stream moving at a very high + velocity. It seems unlikely that sufficient energy to bring about + the observed changes could have been developed by a volcanic + disturbance of the ordinary type; but if radioactive forces are + allowed to come into play the amount of energy available is + practically unlimited. + + It is difficult, however, to conceive of any way in which a sudden + liberation of atomic energy could have been brought about by any + terrestrial agency; so that the first theory, though able to account + for the facts, seems to be the less tenable of the two. The meteoric + theory offers no especial difficulty. The energy delivered by a + comparatively small mass of finely divided matter, moving at a + velocity of several hundred kilometres a second--and such a velocity + is by no means unknown--would be amply sufficient to alter the + velocity of rotation by the small amount observed. + + Moreover, the impact of such a meteoric stream may have + developed a temperature sufficiently high to bring about + radioactive changes, the effect of which would be to expel + helium and other disintegration products at cathode-ray + velocity--(_Kathoden-Strahlen-Fortpflanzung-Geschwindigkeit_)--from + the surface of the earth; and the recoil exerted by this expulsion + would add itself to the force of the meteoric impact. + + The presence of helium makes this latter hypothesis not altogether + improbable, while the atmospheric wave of pressure would result at + once from the disruption of the air by the passage of the meteor + stream through it. Exploration of the region in which it seems + probable that the disturbance took place will undoubtedly furnish + the data necessary for the complete solution of the problem." + [Pp. 17-19.] + + + + +V + + +At ten o'clock one evening, shortly after the occurrences heretofore +described, an extraordinary conference occurred at the White House, +probably the most remarkable ever held there or elsewhere. At the long +table at which the cabinet meetings took place sat six gentlemen in +evening dress, each trying to appear unconcerned, if not amused. At the +head of the table was the President of the United States; next to him +Count von Koenitz, the German Ambassador, representing the Imperial[1] +German Commissioners, who had taken over the reins of the German +Government after the abdication of the Kaiser; and, on the opposite +side, Monsieur Emil Liban, Prince Rostoloff, and Sir John Smith, the +respective ambassadors of France, Russia, and Great Britain. The sixth +person was Thornton, the astronomer. + +[Footnote 1: The Germans were unwilling to surrender the use of the +words "Empire" and "Imperial," even after they had adopted a republican +form of government.] + +The President had only succeeded in bringing this conference about after +the greatest effort and the most skilful diplomacy--in view of the +extreme importance which, he assured them all, he attached to the +matters which he desired to lay before them. Only for this reason had +the ambassadors of warring nations consented to meet--unofficially as it +were. + +"With great respect, your Excellency," said Count von Koenitz, "the +matter is preposterous--as much so as a fairy tale by Grimm! This +wireless operator of whom you speak is lying about these messages. If he +received them at all--a fact which hangs solely upon his word--he +received them _after_ and not _before_ the phenomena recorded." + +The President shook his head. "That might hold true of the first +message--the one received July 19th," said he, "but the second message, +foretelling the lengthening of July 27th, _was delivered on that day, +and was in my hands before the disturbances occurred_." + +Von Koenitz fingered his moustache and shrugged his shoulders. It was +clear that he regarded the whole affair as absurd, undignified. + +Monsieur Liban turned impatiently from him. + +"Your Excellency," he said, addressing the President, "I cannot share +the views of Count von Koenitz. I regard this affair as of the most +stupendous importance. Messages or no messages, extraordinary natural +phenomena are occurring which may shortly end in the extinction of human +life upon the planet. A power which can control the length of the day +can annihilate the globe." + +"You cannot change the facts," remarked Prince Rostoloff sternly to the +German Ambassador. "The earth has changed its orbit. Professor +Vaskofsky, of the Imperial College, has so declared. There is some +cause. Be it God or devil, there is a cause. Are we to sit still and do +nothing while the globe's crust freezes and our armies congeal into +corpses?" He trembled with agitation. + +"Calm yourself, _mon cher Prince_!" said Monsieur Liban. "So far we have +gained fifteen minutes and have lost nothing! But, as you say, whether +or not the sender of these messages is responsible, there is a cause, +and we must find it." + +"But how? That is the question," exclaimed the President almost +apologetically, for he felt, as did Count von Koenitz, that somehow an +explanation would shortly be forthcoming that would make this conference +seem the height of the ridiculous. "I have already," he added hastily, +"instructed the entire force of the National Academy of Sciences to +direct its energies toward the solution of these phenomena. Undoubtedly +Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and France are doing the same. The +scientists report that the yellow aurora seen in the north, the +earthquakes, the variation of the compass, and the eccentricities of the +barometer are probably all connected more or less directly with the +change in the earth's orbit. But they offer no explanation. They do not +suggest what the aurora is nor why its appearance should have this +effect. It, therefore, seems to me clearly my duty to lay before you all +the facts as far as they are known to me. Among these facts are the +mysterious messages received by wireless at the Naval Observatory +immediately preceding these events." + +"_Post hoc, ergo propter hoc!_" half sneered Von Koenitz. + +The President smiled wearily. + +"What do you wish me to do?" he asked, glancing round the table. "Shall +we remain inactive? Shall we wait and see what may happen?" + +"No! No!" shouted Rostoloff, jumping to his feet. "Another week and we +may all be plunged into eternity. It is suicidal not to regard this +matter seriously. We are sick from war. And perhaps Count von Koenitz, +in view of the fall of Berlin, would welcome something of the sort as an +honourable way out of his country's difficulties." + +"Sir!" cried the count, leaping to his feet. "Have a care! It has cost +Russia four million men to reach Berlin. When we have taken Paris we +shall recapture Berlin and commence the march of our victorious eagles +toward Moscow and the Winter Palace." + +"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Be seated, I implore you!" exclaimed the +President. + +The Russian and German ambassadors somewhat ungraciously resumed their +former places, casting at each other glances of undisguised contempt. + +"As I see the matter," continued the President, "there are two distinct +propositions before you: The first relates to how far the extraordinary +events of the past week are of such a character as to demand joint +investigation and action by the Powers. The second involves the cause of +these events and their connection with and relation to the sender of the +messages signed Pax. I shall ask you to signify your opinion as to each +of these questions." + +"I believe that some action should be taken, based on the assumption +that they are manifestations of one and the same power or cause," said +Monsieur Liban emphatically. + +"I agree with the French Ambassador," growled Rostoloff. + +"I am of opinion that the phenomena should be the subject of proper +scientific investigation," remarked Count von Koenitz more calmly. "But +as far as these messages are concerned they are, if I may be pardoned +for saying so, a foolish joke. It is undignified to take any cognizance +of them." + +"What do you think, Sir John?" asked the President, turning to the +English Ambassador. + +"Before making up my mind," returned the latter quietly, "I should like +to see the operator who received them." + +"By all means!" exclaimed Von Koenitz. + +The President pressed a button and his secretary entered. + +"I had anticipated such a desire on the part of all of you," he +announced, "and arranged to have him here. He is waiting outside. Shall +I have him brought in?" + +"Yes! Yes!" answered Rostoloff. And the others nodded. + +The door opened, and Bill Hood, wearing his best new blue suit and +nervously twisting a faded bicycle cap between his fingers, stumbled +awkwardly into the room. His face was bright red with embarrassment and +one of his cheeks exhibited a marked protuberance. He blinked in the +glare of the electric light. + +"Mr. Hood," the President addressed him courteously, "I have sent for +you to explain to these gentlemen, who are the ambassadors of the great +European Powers, the circumstances under which you received the wireless +messages from the unknown person describing himself as 'Pax.'" + +Hood shifted from his right to his left foot and pressed his lips +together. Von Koenitz fingered the waxed ends of his moustache and +regarded the operator whimsically. + +"In the first place," went on the President, "we desire to know whether +the messages which you have reported were received under ordinary or +under unusual conditions. In a word, could you form any opinion as to +the whereabouts of the sender?" + +Hood scratched the side of his nose in a manner politely doubtful. + +"Sure thing, your Honour," he answered at last. "Sure the conditions was +unusual. That feller has some juice and no mistake." + +"Juice?" inquired Von Koenitz. + +"Yare--current. Whines like a steel top. Fifty kilowatts sure, and maybe +more! And a twelve-thousand-metre wave." + +"I do not fully understand," interjected Rostoloff. "Please explain, +sir." + +"Ain't nothin' to explain," returned Hood. "He's just got a hell of a +wave length, that's all. Biggest on earth. We're only tuned for a +three-thousand-metre wave. At first I could hardly take him at all. I +had to throw in our new Henderson ballast coils before I could hear +properly. I reckon there ain't another station in Christendom can get +him." + +"Ah," remarked Von Koenitz. "One of your millionaire amateurs, I +suppose." + +"Yare," agreed Hood. "I thought sure he was a nut." + +"A what?" interrupted Sir John Smith. + +"A nut," answered Hood. "A crank, so to speak." + +"Ah, 'krank'!" nodded the German. "Exactly--a lunatic! That is precisely +what I say!" + +"But I don't think it's no nut now," countered Hood valiantly. "If he is +a bug he's the biggest bug in all creation, that's all I can say. He's +got the goods, that's what he's got. He'll do some damage before he gets +through." + +"Are these messages addressed to anybody in particular?" inquired Sir +John, who was studying Hood intently. + +"Well, they are and they ain't. Pax--that's what he calls +himself--signals NAA, our number, you understand, and then says what he +has to say to the whole world, care of the United States. The first +message I thought was a joke and stuck it in a book I was reading, +'_Silas Snooks_'----" + +"What?" ejaculated Von Koenitz impatiently. + +"Snooks--man's name--feller in the book--nothing to do with this +business," explained the operator. "I forgot all about it. But after the +earthquake and all the rest of the fuss I dug it out and gave it to Mr. +Thornton. Then on the 27th came the next one, saying that Pax was +getting tired of waiting for us and was going to start something. That +came at one o'clock in the afternoon, and the fun began at three sharp. +The whole observatory went on the blink. Say, there ain't any doubt in +your minds that it's _him_, is there?" + +Von Koenitz looked cynically round the room. + +"There is not!" exclaimed Rostoloff and Liban in the same breath. + +The German laughed. + +"Speak for yourselves, Excellencies," he sneered. His tone nettled the +wireless representative of the sovereign American people. + +"Do you think I'm a liar?" he demanded, clenching his jaw and glaring at +Von Koenitz. + +The German Ambassador shrugged his shoulders again. Such things were +impossible in a civilized country--at Potsdam--but what could you +expect---- + +"Steady, Hood!" whispered Thornton. + +"Remember, Mr. Hood, that you are here to answer our questions," said +the President sternly. "You must not address his Excellency, Baron von +Koenitz, in this fashion." + +"But the man was making a monkey of me!" muttered Hood. "All I say is, +look out. This Pax is on his job and means business. I just got another +call before I came over here--at nine o'clock." + +"What was its purport?" inquired the President. + +"Why, it said Pax was getting tired of nothing being done and wanted +action of some sort. Said that men were dying like flies, and he +proposed to put an end to it at any cost. And--and----" + +"Yes! Yes!" ejaculated Liban breathlessly. + +"And he would give further evidence of his control over the forces of +nature to-night." + +"Ha! Ha!" Von Koenitz leaned back in amusement. "My friend," he +chuckled, "you--are--the 'nut'!" + +What form Hood's resentment might have taken is problematical; but as +the German's words left his mouth the electric lights suddenly went out +and the windows rattled ominously. At the same moment each occupant of +the room felt himself sway slightly toward the east wall, on which +appeared a bright yellow glow. Instinctively they all turned to the +window which faced the north. The whole sky was flooded with an +orange-yellow aurora that rivalled the sunlight in intensity. + +"What'd I tell you?" mumbled Hood. + +The Executive Mansion quivered, and even in that yellow light the faces +of the ambassadors seemed pale with fear. And then as the glow slowly +faded in the north there floated down across the aperture of the window +something soft and fluffy like feathers. Thicker and faster it came +until the lawn of the White House was covered with it. The air in the +room turned cold. Through the window a large flake circled and lit on +the back of Rostoloff's head. + +"Snow!" he cried. "A snowstorm--in August!" + +The President arose and closed the window. Almost immediately the +electric lights burned up again. + +"Now are you satisfied?" cried Liban to the German. + +"Satisfied?" growled Von Koenitz. "I have seen plenty of snowstorms in +August. They have them daily in the Alps. You ask me if I am satisfied. +Of what? That earthquakes, the aurora borealis, electrical disturbances, +snowstorms exist--yes. That a mysterious bugaboo is responsible for +these things--no!" + +"What, then, do you require?" gasped Liban. + +"More than a snowstorm!" retorted the German. "When I was a boy at the +gymnasium we had a thunderstorm with fishes in it. They were everywhere +one stepped, all over the ground. But we did not conclude that Jonah was +giving us a demonstration of his power over the whale." + +He faced the others defiantly; in his voice was mockery. + +"You may retire, Mr. Hood," said the President. "But you will kindly +wait outside." + +"That is an honest man if ever I saw one, Mr. President," announced Sir +John, after the operator had gone out. "I am satisfied that we are in +communication with a human being of practically supernatural powers." + +"What, then, shall be done?" inquired Rostoloff anxiously. "The world +will be annihilated!" + +"Your Excellencies"--Von Koenitz arose and took up a graceful position +at the end of the table--"I must protest against what seems to me to be +an extraordinary credulity upon the part of all of you. I speak to you +as a rational human being, not as an ambassador. Something has occurred +to affect the earth's orbit. It may result in a calamity. None can +foretell. This planet may be drawn off into space by the attraction of +some wandering world that has not yet come within observation. But one +thing we know: No power on or of the earth can possibly derange its +relation to the other celestial bodies. That would be, as you say here, +'lifting one's self by one's own boot-straps.' I do not doubt the +accuracy of your clocks and scientific instruments. Those of my own +country are in harmony with yours. But to say that the cause of all this +is a _man_ is preposterous. If the mysterious Pax makes the heavens +fall, they will tumble on his own head. Is he going to send himself to +eternity along with the rest of us? Hardly! This Hood is a monstrous +liar or a dangerous lunatic. Even if he has received these messages, +they are the emanations of a crank, as, he says, he himself first +suspected. Let us master this hysteria born of the strain of constant +war. In a word, let us go to bed." + +"Count von Koenitz," replied Sir John after a pause, "you speak +forcefully, even persuasively. But your argument is based upon a +proposition that is scientifically fallacious. An atom of gunpowder can +disintegrate itself, 'lift itself by its own boot-straps!' Why not the +earth? Have we as yet begun to solve all the mysteries of nature? Is it +inconceivable that there should be an undiscovered explosive capable of +disrupting the globe? We have earthquakes. Is it beyond imagination that +the forces which produce them can be controlled?" + +"My dear Sir John," returned Von Koenitz courteously, "my ultimate +answer is that we have no adequate reason to connect the phenomena which +have disturbed the earth's rotation with any human agency." + +"That," interposed the President, "is something upon which individuals +may well differ. I suppose that under other conditions you would be open +to conviction?" + +"Assuredly," answered Von Koenitz. "Should the sender of these messages +prophesy the performance of some miracle that could not be explained by +natural causes, I would be forced to admit my error." + +Monsieur Liban had also arisen and was walking nervously up and down the +room. Suddenly he turned to Von Koenitz and in a voice shaking with +emotion cried: "Let us then invite Pax to give us a sign that will +satisfy you." + +"Monsieur Liban," replied Von Koenitz stiffly, "I refuse to place myself +in the position of communicating with a lunatic." + +"Very well," shouted the Frenchman, "I will take the responsibility of +making myself ridiculous. I will request the President of the United +States to act as the agent of France for this purpose." + +He drew a notebook and a fountain pen from his pocket and carefully +wrote out a message which he handed to the President. The latter read it +aloud: + + "_Pax_: The Ambassador of the French Republic requests me to + communicate to you the fact that he desires some further evidence + of your power to control the movements of the earth and the + destinies of mankind, such phenomena to be preferably of a harmless + character, but inexplicable by any theory of natural causation. I + await your reply. + + "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES." + +"Send for Hood," ordered the President to the secretary who answered the +bell. "Gentlemen, I suggest that we ourselves go to Georgetown and +superintend the sending of this message." + +Half an hour later Bill Hood sat in his customary chair in the wireless +operating room surrounded by the President of the United States, the +ambassadors of France, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia, and Professor +Thornton. The faces of all wore expressions of the utmost seriousness, +except that of Von Koenitz, who looked as if he were participating in an +elaborate hoax. Several of these distinguished gentlemen had never seen +a wireless apparatus before, and showed some excitement as Hood made +ready to send the most famous message ever transmitted through the +ether. At last he threw over his rheostat and the hum of the rotary +spark rose into its staccato song. Hood sent out a few V's and then +began calling: + +"PAX--PAX--PAX." + +Breathlessly the group waited while he listened for a reply. Again he +called: + +"PAX--PAX--PAX." + +He had already thrown in his Henderson ballast coils and was ready for +the now familiar wave. He closed his eyes, waiting for that sharp +metallic cry that came no one knew whence. The others in the group also +listened intently, as if by so doing they, too, might hear the answer if +any there should be. Suddenly Hood stiffened. + +"There he is!" he whispered. The President handed him the message, and +Hood's fingers played over the key while the spark sent its singing note +through the ether. + +"Such phenomena to be preferably of a harmless character, but +inexplicable by any theory of natural causation," he concluded. + +An uncanny dread seized on Thornton, who had withdrawn himself into the +background. What was this strange communion? Who was this mysterious +Pax? Were these real men or creatures of a grotesque dream? Was he not +drowsing over his eyepiece in the meridian-circle room? Then a +simultaneous movement upon the part of those gathered round the operator +convinced him of the reality of what was taking place. Hood was +laboriously writing upon a sheet of yellow pad paper, and the +ambassadors were unceremoniously crowding each other in their eagerness +to read. + +"To the President of the United States," wrote Hood: "In reply to your +message requesting further evidence of my power to compel the cessation +of hostilities within twenty-four hours, I"--there was a pause for +nearly a minute, during which the ticking of the big clock sounded to +Thornton like revolver shots--"I will excavate a channel through the +Atlas Mountains and divert the Mediterranean into the Sahara Desert. +PAX." + +Silence followed the final transcription of the message from the +unknown--a silence broken only by Bill Hood's tremulous, half-whispered: +"He'll do it all right!" + +Then the German Ambassador laughed. + +"And thus save your ingenious nation a vast amount of trouble, Monsieur +Liban," said he. + + + + +VI + + +A Tripolitan fisherman, Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad, a holy man nearly +seventy years of age, who had twice made the journey to Mecca and who +now in his declining years occupied himself with reading the Koran and +instructing his grandsons in the profession of fishing for mullet along +the reefs of the Gulf of Cabes, had anchored for the night off the +Tunisian coast, about midway between Sfax and Lesser Syrtis. The mullet +had been running thick and he was well satisfied, for by the next +evening he would surely complete his load and be able to return home to +the house of his daughter, Fatima, the wife of Abbas, the confectioner. +Her youngest son, Abdullah, a lithe lad of seventeen, was at that moment +engaged in folding their prayer rugs, which had been spread in the bow +of the falukah in order that they might have a clearer view as they +knelt toward the Holy City. Chud, their slave, was cleaning mullet in +the waist and chanting some weird song of his native land. + +Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad was sitting cross-legged in the stern, smoking a +hookah and watching the full moon sail slowly up above the Atlas Range +to the southwest. The wind had died down and the sea was calm, heaving +slowly with great orange-purple swells resembling watered silk. In the +west still lingered the fast-fading afterglow, above which the stars +glimmered faintly. Along the coast lights twinkled in scattered coves. +Half a mile astern the Italian cruiser _Fiala_ lay slowly swinging at +anchor. From the forecastle came the smell of fried mullet. Mohammed Ben +Ali was at peace with himself and with the world, including even the +irritating Chud. The west darkened and the stars burned more +brilliantly. With the hookah gurgling softly at his feet, Mohammed +leaned back his head and gazed in silent appreciation at the wonders of +the heavens. There was Turka Kabar, the crocodile; and Menish el Tabir, +the sleeping beauty; and Rook Hamana, the leopard, and there--up there +to the far north--was a shooting star. How gracefully it shot across the +sky, leaving its wake of yellow light behind it! It was the season for +shooting stars, he recollected. In an instant it would be gone--like a +man's life! Saddened, he looked down at his hookah. When he should look +up again--if in only an instant--the star would be gone. Presently he +did look up again. But the star was still there, coming his way! + +He rubbed his old eyes, keen as they were from habituation to the +blinding light of the desert. Yes, the star was coming--coming fast. + +"Abdullah!" he called in his high-pitched voice. "Chud! Come, see the +star!" + +Together they watched it sweep onward. + +"By Allah! That is no star!" suddenly cried Abdullah. "It is an +air-flying fire chariot! I can see it with my eyes--black, and spouting +flames from behind." + +"Black," echoed Chud gutturally. "Black and round! Oh, Allah!" He fell +on his knees and knocked his head against the deck. + +The star, or whatever it was, swung in a wide circle toward the coast, +and Mohammed and Abdullah now saw that what they had taken to be a trail +of fire behind was in fact a broad beam of yellow light that pointed +diagonally earthward. It swept nearer and nearer, illuminating the whole +sky and casting a shimmering reflection upon the waves. + +A shrill whistle trilled across the water, accompanied by the sound of +footsteps running along the decks of the cruiser. Lights flashed. +Muffled orders were shouted. + +"By the beard of the Prophet!" cried Mohammed Ali. "Something is going +to happen!" + +The small black object from which the incandescent beam descended passed +at that moment athwart the face of the moon, and Abdullah saw that it +was round and flat like a ring. The ray of light came from a point +directly above it, passing through its aperture downward to the sea. + +"Boom!" The fishing-boat shook to the thunder of the _Fiala's_ +eight-inch gun, and a blinding spurt of flame leaped from the cruiser's +bows. With a whining shriek a shell rose toward the moon. There was a +quick flash followed by a dull concussion. The shell had not reached a +tenth of the distance to the flying machine. + +And then everything happened at once. Mohammed described afterward to a +gaping multitude of dirty villagers, while he sat enthroned upon his +daughter's threshold, how the star-ship had sailed across the face of +the moon and come to a standstill above the mountains, with its beam of +yellow light pointing directly downward so that the coast could be seen +bright as day from Sfax to Cabes. He saw, he said, genii climbing up and +down on the beam. Be that as it may, he swears upon the Beard of the +Prophet that a second ray of light--of a lavender colour, like the eye +of a long-dead mullet--flashed down alongside the yellow beam. Instantly +the earth blew up like a cannon--up into the air, a thousand miles up. +It was as light as noonday. Deafened by titanic concussions he fell half +dead. The sea boiled and gave off thick clouds of steam through which +flashed dazzling discharges of lightning accompanied by a thundering, +grinding sound like a million mills. The ocean heaved spasmodically and +the air shook with a rending, ripping noise, as if Nature were bent upon +destroying her own handiwork. The glare was so dazzling that sight was +impossible. The falukah was tossed this way and that, as if caught in a +simoon, and he was rolled hither and yon in the company of Chud, +Abdullah, and the headless mullet. + +This earsplitting racket continued, he says, without interruption for +two days. Abdullah says it was several hours; the official report of the +_Fiala_ gives it as six minutes. And then it began to rain in torrents +until he was almost drowned. A great wind arose and lashed the ocean, +and a whirlpool seized the falukah and whirled it round and round. +Darkness descended upon the earth, and in the general mess Mohammed hit +his head a terrific blow against the mast. He was sure it was but a +matter of seconds before they would be dashed to pieces by the waves. +The falukah spun like a marine top with a swift sideways motion. +Something was dragging them along, sucking them in. The _Fiala_ went +careening by, her fighting masts hanging in shreds. The air was full of +falling rocks, trees, splinters, and thick clouds of dust that turned +the water yellow in the lightning flashes. The mast went crashing over +and a lemon tree descended to take its place. Great streams of lava +poured down out of the air, and masses of opaque matter plunged into the +sea all about the falukah. Scalding mud, stones, hail, fell upon the +deck. + +And still the fishing-boat, gyrating like a leaf, remained afloat with +its crew of half-crazed Arabs. Suffocated, stunned, scalded, petrified +with fear, they lay among the mullet while the falukah raced along in +its wild dance with death. Mohammed recalls seeing what he thought to be +a great cliff rush by close beside them. The falukah plunged over a +waterfall and was almost submerged, was caught again in a maelstrom, and +went twirling on in the blackness. They all were deathly sick, but were +too terrified to move. + +And then the nearer roaring ceased. The air was less congested. They +were still showered with sand, clods of earth, twigs, and pebbles, it is +true, but the genii had stopped hurling mountains at each other. The +darkness became less opaque, the water smoother. Soon they could see the +moon through the clouds of settling dust, and gradually they could +discern the stars. The falukah was rocking gently upon a broad expanse +of muddy ocean, surrounded by a yellow scum broken here and there by a +floating tree. The _Fiala_ had vanished. No light shone upon the face of +the waters. But death had not overtaken them. Overcome by exhaustion and +terror Mohammed lay among the mullet, his legs entangled in the lemon +tree. Did he dream it? He cannot tell. But as he lost consciousness he +thinks he saw a star shooting toward the north. + +When he awoke the falukah lay motionless upon a boundless ochre sea. +They were beyond sight of land. Out of a sky slightly dim the sun burned +pitilessly down, sending warmth into their bodies and courage to their +hearts. All about them upon the water floated the evidences of the +cataclysm of the preceding night--trees, shrubs, dead birds, and the +distorted corpse of a camel. Kneeling without their prayer rugs among +the mullet they raised their voices in praise of Allah and his Prophet. + + + + +VII + + +Within twenty-four hours of the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas by +the Flying Ring and the consequent flooding of the Sahara, the official +gazettes and such newspapers as were still published announced that the +Powers had agreed upon an armistice and accepted a proposition of +mediation on the part of the United States looking toward permanent +peace. The news of the devastation and flood caused by this strange and +terrible dreadnought of the air created the profoundest apprehension and +caused the wildest rumours, for what had happened in Tunis was assumed +as likely to occur in London, Paris, or New York. Wireless messages +flashed the story from Algiers to Cartagena, and it was thence +disseminated throughout the civilized world by the wireless stations at +Paris, Nauen, Moscow, and Georgetown. + +The fact that the rotation of the earth had been retarded was still a +secret, and the appearance of the Ring had not as yet been connected +with any of the extraordinary phenomena surrounding it; but the +newspaper editorials universally agreed that whatever nation owned and +controlled this new instrument of war could dictate its own terms. It +was generally supposed that the blasting of the mountain chain of +Northern Africa had been an experiment to test and demonstrate the +powers of this new demoniacal invention, and in view of its success it +did not seem surprising that the nations had hastened to agree to an +armistice, for the Power that controlled a force capable of producing +such an extraordinary physical cataclysm could annihilate every capital, +every army, every people upon the globe or even the globe itself. + +The flight of the Ring machine had been observed at several different +points, beginning at Cape Race, where at about four A.M. the +wireless operator reported what he supposed to be a large comet +discharging earthward a diagonal shaft of orange-yellow light and moving +at incredible velocity in a southeasterly direction. During the +following day the lookout on the _Vira_, a fishguard and scout cruiser +of the North Atlantic Patrol, saw a black speck soaring among the clouds +which he took to be a lost monoplane fighting to regain the coast of +Ireland. At sundown an amateur wireless operator at St. Michael's in the +Azores noted a small comet sweeping across the sky far to the north. +This comet an hour or so later passed directly over the cities of +Lisbon, Linares, Lorca, Cartagena, and Algiers, and was clearly +observable from Badajoz, Almaden, Seville, Cordova, Grenada, Oran, +Biskra, and Tunis, and at the latter places it was easily possible for +telescopic observers to determine its size, shape, and general +construction. + +Daniel W. Quinn, Jr., the acting United States Consul stationed at +Biskra, who happened to be dining with the abbot of the Franciscan +monastery at Linares, sent the following account of the flight of the +Ring to the State Department at Washington, where it is now on file. +[See Vol. 27, pp. 491-498, with footnote, of Official Records of the +Consular Correspondence for 1915-1916.] After describing general +conditions in Algeria he continues: + + We had gone upon the roof in the early evening to look at the sky + through the large telescope presented to the Franciscans by Count + Philippe d'Ormay, when Father Antoine called my attention to a + comet that was apparently coming straight toward us. Instead, + however, of leaving a horizontal trail of fire behind it, this + comet or meteorite seemed to shoot an almost vertical beam of + orange light toward the earth. It produced a very strange effect on + all of us, since a normal comet or other celestial body that left a + wake of light of that sort behind it would naturally be expected to + be moving upward toward the zenith, instead of in a direction + parallel to the earth. It looked somehow as if the tail of the + comet had been bent over. As soon as it came near enough so that we + could focus the telescope upon it we discovered that it was a new + sort of flying machine. It passed over our heads at a height no + greater than ten thousand feet, if as great as that, and we could + see that it was a cylindrical ring like a doughnut or an anchor + ring, constructed, I believe, of highly polished metal, the inner + aperture being about twenty-five yards in diameter. The tube of the + cylinder looked to be about twenty feet thick, and had circular + windows or portholes that were brilliantly lighted. + + The strangest thing about it was that it carried a superstructure + consisting of a number of arms meeting at a point above the centre + of the opening and supporting some sort of apparatus from which the + beam of light emanated. This appliance, which we supposed to be a + gigantic searchlight, was focused down through the Ring and could + apparently be moved at will over a limited radius of about fifteen + degrees. We could not understand this, nor why the light was thrown + from outside and above instead of from inside the flying machine, + but the explanation may be found in the immense heat that must have + been required to generate the light, since it illuminated the entire + country for fifty miles or so, and we were able to read without + trouble the fine print of the abbot's rubric. This Flying Ring moved + on an even keel at the tremendous velocity of about two hundred + miles an hour. We wondered what would happen if it turned turtle, + for in that case the weight of the superstructure would have + rendered it impossible for the machine to right itself. In fact, + none of us had ever imagined any such air monster before. Beside it + a Zeppelin seemed like a wooden toy. + + The Ring passed over the mountains toward Cabes and within a short + time a volcanic eruption occurred that destroyed a section of the + Atlas Range. [Mr. Quinn here describes with considerable detail the + destruction of the mountains.] The next morning I found Biskra + crowded with Arabs, who reported that the ocean had poured through + the passage made by the eruption and was flooding the entire desert + as far south as the oasis of Wargla, and that it had come within + twelve miles of the walls of our own city. I at once hired a donkey + and made a personal investigation, with the result that I can report + as a fact that the entire desert east and south of Biskra is + inundated to a depth of from seven to ten feet and that the water + gives no sign of going down. The loss of life seems to have been + negligible, owing to the fact that the height of the water is not + great and that many unexpected islands have provided safety for the + caravans that were _in transitu_. These are now marooned and waiting + for assistance, which I am informed will be sent from Cabes in the + form of flat-bottomed boats fitted with motor auxiliaries. + + Respectfully submitted, + + D. W. QUINN, Jr., + Acting U. S. Consul. + +The Italian cruiser _Fiala_, which had been carried one hundred and +eighty miles into the desert on the night of the eruption, grounded +safely on the plateau of Tasili, but the volcanic tidal wave on which +she had been swept along, having done its work, receded, leaving too +little water for the _Fiala's_ draft of thirty-seven feet. Four launches +sent out in different directions to the south and east reported no sign +of land, but immense quantities of floating vegetable matter, yellow +dust, and the bodies of jackals, camels, zebras, and lions. The fifth +launch after great hardships reached the seacoast through the new +channel and arrived at Sfax after eight days. + +The mean tide level of the Mediterranean sank fifteen inches, and the +water showed marked discoloration for several months, while a volcanic +haze hung over Northern Africa, Sicily, Malta, and Sardinia for an even +longer period. + +Though many persons must have lost their lives the records are +incomplete in this respect; but there is a curious document in the +mosque at Sfax touching the effect of the Lavender Ray. It appears that +an Arab mussel-gatherer was in a small boat with his two brothers at the +time the Ring appeared above the mountains. As they looked up toward the +sky the Ray flashed over and illuminated their faces. They thought +nothing of it at the time, for almost immediately the mountains were +rent asunder and in the titanic upheaval that followed they were all +cast upon the shore, as they thought, dead men. Reaching Sfax they +reported their adventures and offered prayers in gratitude for their +extraordinary escape; but five days later all three began to suffer +excruciating torment from internal burns, the skin upon their heads and +bodies began to peel off, and they died in agony within the week. + + + + +VIII + + +It was but a few days thereafter that the President of the United States +received the official note from Count von Koenitz, on behalf of the +Imperial German Commissioners, to the effect that Germany would join +with the other Powers in an armistice looking toward peace and +ultimately a universal disarmament. Similar notes had already been +received by the President from France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, +Austria, Spain, and Slavia, and a multitude of the other smaller Powers +who were engaged in the war, and there was no longer any reason for +delaying the calling of an international council or diet for the purpose +of bringing about what Pax demanded as a ransom for the safety of the +globe. + +In the files of the State Department at Washington there is secreted the +only record of the diplomatic correspondence touching these momentous +events, and a transcript of the messages exchanged between the President +of the United States and the Arbiter of Human Destiny. They are +comparatively few in number, for Pax seemed to be satisfied to leave all +details to the Powers themselves. In the interest of saving time, +however, he made the simple suggestion that the present ambassadors +should be given plenary powers to determine the terms and conditions +upon which universal peace should be declared. All these proceedings and +the reasons therefore were kept profoundly secret. It began to look as +though the matter would be put through with characteristic Yankee +promptness. Pax's suggestion was acceded to, and the ambassadors and +ministers were given unrestricted latitude in drawing the treaty that +should abolish war forever. + +Now that he had been won over no one was more indefatigable than Von +Koenitz, none more fertile in suggestions. It was he who drafted with +his own hand the forty pages devoted to the creation of the commission +charged with the duty of destroying all arms, munitions, and implements +of war; and he not only acted as chairman of the preliminary drafting +committee, but was an active member of at least half a dozen other +important subcommittees. The President daily communicated the progress +of this conference of the Powers to Pax through Bill Hood, and received +daily in return a hearty if laconic approval. + + "I am satisfied of the sincerity of the Powers and with the + progress made. PAX." + +was the ordinary type of message received. Meantime word had been sent +to all the governments that an indefinite armistice had been declared, +to commence at the end of ten days, for it had been found necessary to +allow for the time required to transmit the orders to the various fields +of military operations throughout Europe. In the interim the war +continued. + +It was at this time that Count von Koenitz, who now was looked upon as +the leading figure of the conference, arose and said: "Your +Excellencies, this distinguished diet will, I doubt not, presently +conclude its labours and receive not only the approval of the Powers +represented but the gratitude of the nations of the world. I voice the +sentiments of the Imperial Commissioners when I say that no Power looks +forward with greater eagerness than Germany to the accomplishment of our +purpose. But we should not forget that there is one menace to mankind +greater than that of war--namely, the lurking danger from the power of +this unknown possessor of superhuman knowledge of explosives. So far his +influence has been a benign one, but who can say when it may become +malignant? Will our labours please him? Perhaps not. Shall we agree? I +hope so, but who can tell? Will our armies lay down their arms even +after we have agreed? I believe all will go well; but is it wise for us +to refrain from jointly taking steps to ascertain the identity of this +unknown juggler with Nature, and the source of his power? It is my own +opinion, since we cannot exert any influence or control upon this +individual, that we should take whatever steps are within our grasp to +safeguard ourselves in the event that he refuses to keep faith with us. +To this end I suggest an international conference of scientific men from +all the nations to be held here in Washington coincidently with our own +meetings, with a view to determining these questions." + +His remarks were greeted with approval by almost all the representatives +present except Sir John Smith, who mildly hinted that such a course +might be regarded as savouring a trifle of double dealing. Should Pax +receive knowledge of the suggested conference he might question their +sincerity and view all their doings with suspicion. In a word, Sir John +believed in following a consistent course and treating Pax as a friend +and ally and not as a possible enemy. + +Sir John's speech, however, left the delegates unconvinced and with the +feeling that his argument was over-refined. They felt that there could +be no objection to endeavouring to ascertain the source of Pax's +power--the law of self-preservation seemed to indicate such a course as +necessary. And it had, in fact, already been discussed vaguely by +several less conspicuous delegates. Accordingly it was voted, with but +two dissenting voices,[2] to summon what was known as Conference No. 2, +to be held as soon as possible, its proceedings to be conducted in +secret under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, with the +president of the Academy acting as permanent chairman. To this +conference the President appointed Thornton as one of the three +delegates from the United States. + +[Footnote 2: The President of the United States also voted in the +negative.] + +The council of the Powers having so voted, Count von Koenitz at once +transmitted, by way of Sayville, a message which in code appeared to be +addressed to a Herr Karl Heinweg, Notary, at 12^{BIS} Bunden Strasse, +Strassburg, and related to a mortgage about to fall due upon some of Von +Koenitz's properties in Thueringen. When decoded it read: + + "_To the Imperial Commissioners of the German Federated States:_ + + "I have the honour to report that acting according to your + distinguished instructions I have this day proposed an international + conference to consider the scientific problems presented by certain + recent phenomena and that my proposition was adopted. I believe that + in this way the proceedings here may be delayed indefinitely and + time thus secured to enable an expedition to be organized and + dispatched for the purpose of destroying this unknown person or + ascertaining the secret of his power, in accordance with my previous + suggestion. It would be well to send as delegates to this Conference + No. 2 several professors of physics who can by plausible arguments + and ingenious theories so confuse the matter that no determination + can be reached. I suggest Professors Gasgabelaus, of Muenchen, and + Leybach, of the Hague. + + "VON KOENITZ." + +And having thus fulfilled his duty the count took a cab to the +Metropolitan Club and there played a discreet game of billiards with +Senor Tomasso Varilla, the ex-minister from Argentina. + +Von Koenitz from the first had played his hand with a skill which from a +diplomatic view left nothing to be desired. The extraordinary natural +phenomena which had occurred coincidentally with the first message of +Pax to the President of the United States and the fall of Cleopatra's +Needle had been immediately observed by the scientists attached to the +Imperial and other universities throughout the German Federated States, +and had no sooner been observed than their significance had been +realized. These most industrious and thorough of all human investigators +had instantly reported the facts and their preliminary conclusions to +the Imperial Commissioners, with the recommendation that no stone be +left unturned in attempting to locate and ascertain the causes of this +disruption of the forces of nature. The Commissioners at once demanded +an exhaustive report from the faculty of the Imperial German University, +and notified Von Koenitz by cable that until further notice he must seek +in every way to delay investigation by other nations and to belittle the +importance of what had occurred, for these astute German scientists had +at once jumped to the conclusion that the acceleration of the earth's +motion had been due to some human agency possessed of a hitherto +unsuspected power. + +It was for this reason that at the first meeting at the White House the +Ambassador had pooh-poohed the whole matter and talked of snowstorms in +the Alps and showers of fish at Heidelburg, but with the rending of the +northern coast of Africa and the well-attested appearances of "The Ring" +he soon reached the conclusion that his wisest course was to cause such +a delay on the part of the other Powers that the inevitable race for the +secret would be won by the nation which he so astutely represented. He +reasoned, quite accurately, that the scientists of England, Russia, and +America would not remain idle in attempting to deduce the cause and +place the origin of the phenomena and the habitat of the master of the +Ring, and that the only effectual means to enable Germany to capture +this, the greatest of all prizes of war, was to befuddle the +representatives of the other nations while leaving his own unhampered in +their efforts to accomplish that which would make his countrymen, almost +without further effort, the masters of the world. Now the easiest way to +befuddle the scientists of the world was to get them into one place and +befuddle them all together, and this, after communicating with his +superiors, he had proceeded to do. He was a clever man, trained in the +devious ways of the Wilhelmstrasse, and when he set out to accomplish +something he was almost inevitably successful. Yet in spite of the +supposed alliance between Kaiser and Deity man proposes and God +disposes, and sometimes the latter uses the humblest of human +instruments in that disposition. + + + + +IX + + +The Imperial German Commissioner for War, General Hans von Helmuth, was +a man of extraordinary decision and farsightedness. Sixty years of age, +he had been a member of the general staff since he was forty. He had sat +at the feet of Bismarck and Von Moltke, and during his active +participation in the management of German military affairs he had seen +but slight changes in their policy: Mass--overwhelming mass; sudden +momentous onslaught, and, above all, an attack so quick that your +adversary could not regain his feet. It worked nine times out of ten, +and when it didn't it was usually better than taking the defensive. +General von Helmuth having an approved system was to that extent +relieved of anxiety, for all he had to do was to work out details. In +this his highly efficient organization was almost automatic. He himself +was a human compendium of knowledge, and he had but to press a button +and emit a few gutturals and any information that he wanted lay +typewritten before him. Now he sat in his office smoking a Bremen cigar +and studying a huge Mercatorial projection of the Atlantic and adjacent +countries, while with the fingers of his left hand he combed his heavy +beard. + +From the window he looked down upon the inner fortifications of +Mainz--to which city the capital had been removed three months +before--and upon the landing stage for the scouting planes which were +constantly arriving or whirring off toward Holland or Strassburg. Across +the river, under the concealed guns of a sunken battery, stood the huge +hangars of the now useless dirigibles Z^{51~57}. The landing stage +communicated directly by telephone with the adjutant's office, an +enormous hall filled with maps, with which Von Helmuth's private room +was connected. The adjutant himself, a worried-looking man with a bullet +head and an iron-gray moustache, stood at a table in the centre of the +hall addressing rapid-fire sentences to various persons who appeared in +the doorway, saluted, and hurried off again. Several groups were +gathered about the table and the adjutant carried on an interrupted +conversation with all of them, pausing to read the telegrams and +messages that shot out of the pneumatic tubes upon the table from the +telegraph and telephone office on the floor below. + +An elderly man in rather shabby clothes entered, looking about +helplessly through the thick lenses of his double spectacles, and the +adjutant turned at once from the officers about him with an "Excuse me, +gentlemen." + +"Good afternoon, Professor von Schwenitz; the general is waiting for +you," said he. "This way, please." + +He stalked across to the door of the inner office. + +"Professor von Schwenitz is here," he announced, and immediately +returned to take up the thread of his conversation in the centre of the +hall. + +The general turned gruffly to greet his visitor. "I have sent for you, +Professor," said he, without removing his cigar, "in order that I may +fully understand the method by which you say you have ascertained the +place of origin of the wireless messages and electrical disturbances +referred to in our communications of last week. This may be a serious +matter. The accuracy of your information is of vital importance." + +The professor hesitated in embarrassment, and the general scowled. + +"Well?" he demanded, biting off the chewed end of his cigar. "Well? This +is not a lecture room. Time is short. Out with it." + +"Your Excellency!" stammered the poor professor, "I--I----The +observations are so--inadequate--one cannot determine----" + +"What?" roared Von Helmuth. "But you said you _had_!" + +"Only approximately, your Excellency. One cannot be positive, but within +a reasonable distance----" He paused. + +"What do you call a reasonable distance? I supposed your physics was an +exact science!" retorted the general. + +"But the data----" + +"What do you call a reasonable distance?" bellowed the Imperial +Commissioner. + +"A hundred kilometres!" suddenly shouted the overwrought professor, +losing control of himself. "I won't be talked to this way, do you hear? +I won't! How can a man think? I'm a member of the faculty of the +Imperial University. I've been decorated twice--twice!" + +"Fiddlesticks!" returned the general, amused in spite of himself. "Don't +be absurd. I merely wish you to hurry. Have a cigar?" + +"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, now both ashamed and +frightened. "You must excuse me. The war has shattered my nerves. May I +smoke? Thank you." + +"Sit down. Take your time," said Von Helmuth, looking out and up at a +monoplane descending toward the landing in slowly lessening spirals. + +"You see, your Excellency," explained Von Schwenitz, "the data are +fragmentary, but I used three methods, each checking the others." + +"The first?" shot back the general. The monoplane had landed safely. + +"I compared the records of all the seismographs that had registered the +earthquake wave attendant on the electrical discharges accompanying the +great yellow auroras of July. These shocks had been felt all over the +globe, and I secured reports from Java, New Guinea, Lima, Tucson, +Greenwich, Algeria, and Moscow. These showed the wave had originated +somewhere in Eastern Labrador." + +"Yes, yes. Go on!" ordered the general. + +"In the second place, the violent magnetic storms produced by the helium +aurora appear to have left their mark each time upon the earth in a +permanent, if slight, deflection of the compass needle. The earth's +normal magnetic field seems to have had superimposed upon it a new field +comprised of lines of force nearly parallel to the equator. My +computations show that these great circles of magnetism centre at +approximately the same point in Labrador as that indicated by the +seismographs--about fifty-five degrees north and seventy-five degrees +west." + +The general seemed struck with this. + +"Permanent deflection, you say!" he ejaculated. + +"Yes, apparently permanent. Finally the barometer records told the same +story, although in less precise form. A compressional wave of air had +been started in the far north and had spread out over the earth with the +velocity of sound. Though the barographs themselves gave no indication +whence this wave had come, the variation in its intensity at different +meteorological observatories could be accounted for by the law of +inverse squares on the supposition that the explosion which started the +wave had occurred at fifty-five degrees north, seventy-five degrees +west." + +The professor paused and wiped his glasses. With a roar a Taube slid off +the landing stage, shot over toward the hangars, and soared upward. + +"Is that all?" inquired the general, turning again to the chart. + +"That is all, your Excellency," answered Von Schwenitz. + +"Then you may go!" muttered the Imperial Commissioner. "If we find the +source of these disturbances where you predict you will receive the +Black Eagle." + +"Oh, your Excellency!" protested the professor, his face shining with +satisfaction. + +"And if we do _not_ find it--there will be a vacancy on the faculty of +the Imperial University!" he added grimly. "Good afternoon." + +He pressed a button and the departing scholar was met by an orderly and +escorted from the War Bureau, while the adjutant joined Von Helmuth. + +"He's got him! I'm satisfied!" remarked the Commissioner. "Now outline +your plan." + +The bullet-headed man took up the calipers and indicated a spot on the +coast of Labrador: + +"Our expedition will land, subject to your approval, at Hamilton Inlet, +using the town of Rigolet as a base. By availing ourselves of the +Nascopee River and the lakes through which it flows, we can easily +penetrate to the highland where the inventor of the Ring machine has +located himself. The auxiliary brigantine _Sea Fox_ is lying now under +American colours at Amsterdam, and as she can steam fifteen knots an +hour she should reach the Inlet in about ten days, passing to the north +of the Orkneys." + +"What force have you in mind?" inquired Von Helmuth, his cold gray eyes +narrowing. + +"Three full companies of sappers and miners, ten mountain howitzers, a +field battery, fifty rapid-fire standing rifles, and a complete outfit +for throwing lyddite. Of course we shall rely principally on high +explosives if it becomes necessary to use force, but what we want is a +hostage who may later become an ally." + +"Yes, of course," said the general with a laugh. "This is a scientific, +not a military, expedition." + +"I have asked Lieutenant Muenster to report upon the necessary +equipment." + +Von Helmuth nodded, and the adjutant stepped to the door and called out: +"Lieutenant Muenster!" + +A trim young man in naval uniform appeared upon the threshold and +saluted. + +"State what you regard as necessary as equipment for the proposed +expedition," said the general. + +"Twenty motor boats, each capable of towing several flat-bottomed barges +or native canoes, forty mules, a field telegraph, and also a +high-powered wireless apparatus, axes, spades, wire cables and drums, +windlasses, dynamite for blasting, and provisions for sixty days. We +shall live off the country and secure artisans and bearers from among +the natives." + +"When will it be possible to start?" inquired the general. + +"In twelve days if you give the order now," answered the young man. + +"Very well, you may go. And good luck to you!" he added. + +The young lieutenant saluted and turned abruptly on his heel. + +Over the parade ground a biplane was hovering, darting this way and +that, rising and falling with startling velocity. + +"Who's that?" inquired the general approvingly. + +"Schoeningen," answered the adjutant. + +The Imperial Commissioner felt in his breast-pocket for another cigar. + +"Do you know, Ludwig," he remarked amiably as he struck a meditative +match, "sometimes I more than half believe this 'Flying Ring' business +is all rot!" + +The adjutant looked pained. + +"And yet," continued Von Helmuth, "if Bismarck could see one of those +things," he waved his cigar toward the gyrating aeroplane, "he wouldn't +believe it." + + + + +X + + +All day the International Assembly of Scientists, officially known as +Conference No. 2, had been sitting, but not progressing, in the large +lecture hall of the Smithsonian Institution, which probably had never +before seen so motley a gathering. Each nation had sent three +representatives, two professional scientists, and a lay delegate, the +latter some writer or thinker renowned in his own country for his wide +knowledge and powers of ratiocination. They had come together upon the +appointed day, although the delegates from the remoter countries had not +yet arrived, and the Committee on Credentials had already reported. +Germany had sent Gasgabelaus, Leybach, and Wilhelm Lamszus; +France--Sortell, Amand, and Buona Varilla; Great Britain--Sir William +Crookes, Sir Francis Soddy, and Mr. H. G. Wells, celebrated for his "The +War of the Worlds" and The "World Set Free," and hence supposedly just +the man to unravel a scientific mystery such as that which confronted +this galaxy of immortals. + +The Committee on Data, of which Thornton was a member, having been +actively at work for nearly two weeks through wireless communication +with all the observatories--seismic, meteorological, astronomical, and +otherwise--throughout the world, had reduced its findings to print, and +this matter, translated into French, German, and Italian, had already +been distributed among those present. Included in its pages was Quinn's +letter to the State Department. + +The roll having been called, the president of the National Academy of +Sciences made a short speech in which he outlined briefly the purpose +for which the committee had been summoned and commented to some extent +upon the character of the phenomena it was required to analyze. + +And then began an unending series of discussions and explanations in +French, German, Dutch, Russian, and Italian, by goggle-eyed, +bushy-whiskered, long-haired men who looked like anarchists or +sociologists and apparently had never before had an unrestricted +opportunity to air their views on anything. + +Thornton, listening to this hodgepodge of technicalities, was dismayed +and distrustful. These men spoke a language evidently familiar to them, +which he, although a professional scientist, found a meaningless jargon. +The whole thing seemed unreal, had a purely theoretic or literary +quality about it that made him question even their premises. In the +tainted air of the council room, listening to these little pot-bellied +_Professoren_ from Amsterdam and Muenich, doubt assailed him, doubt even +that the earth had changed its orbit, doubt even of his own established +formulae and tables. Weren't they all just talking through their hats? +Wasn't it merely a game in which an elaborate system of equivalents gave +a semblance of actuality to what in fact was nothing but mind-play? Even +Wells, whose literary style he admired as one of the beauties as well as +one of the wonders of the world, had been a disappointment. He had +seemed singularly halting and unconvincing. + +"I wish I knew a practical man--I wish Bennie Hooker were here!" +muttered Thornton to himself. He had not seen his classmate Hooker for +twenty-six years; but that was one thing about Hooker: you knew he'd be +exactly the same--only more so--as he was when you last saw him. In +those years Bennie had become the Lawson Professor of Applied Physics at +Harvard. Thornton had read his papers on induced radiation, thermic +equilibrium, and had one of Bennie's famous Gem Home Cookers in his own +little bachelor apartment. Hooker would know. And if he didn't he'd tell +you so, without befogging the atmosphere with a lot of things he _did_ +know, but that wouldn't help you in the least. Thornton clutched at the +thought of him like a falling aeronaut at a dangling rope. He'd be worth +a thousand of these dreaming lecturers, these beer-drinking visionaries! +But where could he be found? It was August, vacation time. Still, he +might be in Cambridge giving a summer course or something. + +At that moment Professor Gasgabelaus, the temporary chairman, a huge +man, the periphery of whose abdomen rivalled the circumference of the +"working terrestrial globe" at the other end of the platform, pounded +perspiringly with his gavel and announced that the conference would +adjourn until the following Monday morning. It was Friday afternoon, so +he had sixty hours in which to connect with Bennie, if Bennie could be +discovered. A telegram of inquiry brought no response, and he took the +midnight train to Boston, reaching Cambridge about two o'clock the +following afternoon. + +The air trembled with heat. Only by dodging from the shadow of one big +elm to another did he manage to reach the Appian Way--the street given +in the university catalogue as Bennie's habitat--alive. As he swung open +the little wicket gate he realized with an odd feeling that it was the +same house where Hooker had lived when a student, twenty-five years +before. + +"Board" was printed on a yellow, fly-blown card in the corner of the +window beside the door. + +Up there over the porch was the room Bennie had inhabited from '85 to +'89. He recalled vividly the night he, Thornton, had put his foot +through the lower pane. They had filled up the hole with an old golf +stocking. His eyes searched curiously for the pane. There it was, still +broken and still stuffed--it couldn't be!--with some colourless material +strangely resembling disintegrating worsted. The sun smote him in the +back of his neck and drove him to seek the relief of the porch. Had he +ever left Cambridge? Wasn't it a dream about his becoming an astronomer +and working at the Naval Observatory? And all this stuff about the earth +going on the loose? If he opened the door wouldn't he find Bennie with a +towel round his head cramming for the "exams"? For a moment he really +imagined that he was an undergraduate. Then as he fanned himself with +his straw hat he caught, on the silk band across the interior, the +words: "Smith's Famous Headwear, Washington, D.C." No, he was really an +astronomer. + +He shuddered in spite of the heat as he pulled the bell knob. What +ghosts would its jangle summon? The bell, however, gave no sound; in +fact the knob came off in his hand, followed by a foot or so of copper +wire. He laughed, gazing at it blankly. No one had ever used the bell in +the old days. They had simply kicked open the door and halloed: "O-o-h, +Bennie Hooker!" + +Thornton laid the knob on the piazza and inspected the front of the +house. The windows were thick with dust, the "yard" scraggly with weeds. +A piece of string held the latch of the gate together. Then +automatically, and without intending to do so at all, Thornton turned +the handle of the front door, assisting it coincidentally with a gentle +kick from his right toe, and found himself in the narrow cabbage-scented +hallway. The old, familiar, battered black-walnut hatrack of his student +days leaned drunkenly against the wall--Thornton knew one of its back +legs was missing--and on the imitation marble slab was a telegram +addressed to "Professor Benjamin Hooker." And also, instinctively, +Thornton lifted up his adult voice and yelled: + +"O-o-h, ye-ay! Bennie Hooker!" + +The volume of his own sound startled him. Instantly he saw the +ridiculousness of it--he, the senior astronomer at the Naval +Observatory, yelling like that---- + +"O-o-h, ye-ay!" came in smothered tones from above. + +Thornton bounded up the stairs, two, three steps at a time, and pounded +on the old door over the porch. + +"Go away!" came back the voice of Bennie Hooker. "Don't want any lunch!" + +Thornton continued to bang on the door while Professor Hooker wrathfully +besought the intruder to depart before he took active measures. There +was the cracking of glass. + +"Oh, damn!" came from inside. + +Thornton rattled the knob and kicked. Somebody haltingly crossed the +room, the key turned, and Prof. Bennie Hooker opened the door. + +"Well?" he demanded, scowling over his thick spectacles. + +"Hello, Bennie!" said Thornton, holding out his hand. + +"Hello, Buck!" returned Hooker. "Come in. I thought it was that +confounded Ethiopian." + +As far as Thornton could see, it was the same old room, only now crammed +with books and pamphlets and crowded with tables of instruments. Hooker, +clad in sneakers, white ducks, and an undershirt, was smoking a small +"T. D." pipe. + +"Where on earth did you come from?" he inquired good-naturedly. + +"Washington," answered Thornton, and something told him that this was +the real thing--the "goods"--that his journey would be repaid. + +Hooker waved the "T. D." in a general sort of way toward some +broken-down horsehair armchairs and an empty crate. + +"Sit down, won't you?" he said, as if he had seen his guest only the day +before. He looked vaguely about for something that Thornton might smoke, +then seated himself on a cluttered bench holding a number of retorts, +beside which flamed an oxyacetylene blowpipe. He was a wizened little +chap, with scrawny neck and protruding Adam's apple. His long hair gave +no evidence of the use of the comb, and his hands were the hands of +Esau. He had an alertness that suggested a robin, but at the same time +gave the impression that he looked through things rather than at them. +On the mantel was a saucer containing the fast oxidizing cores of +several apples and a half-eaten box of oatmeal biscuits. + +"My Lord! This is an untidy hole! No more order than when you were an +undergrad!" exclaimed Thornton, looking about him in amused horror. + +"Order?" returned Bennie indignantly. "Everything's in perfect order! +This chair is filled with the letters I _have_ already answered; this +chair with the letters I've _not_ answered; and this chair with the +letters I shall _never_ answer!" + +Thornton took a seat on the crate, laughing. It was the same old Bennie! + +"You're an incorrigible!" he sighed despairingly. + +"Well, you're a star gazer, aren't you?" inquired Hooker, relighting his +pipe. "Some one told me so--I forget who. You must have a lot of +interesting problems. They tell me that new planet of yours is full of +uranium." + +Thornton laughed. "You mustn't believe all that you read in the papers. +What are you working at particularly?" + +"Oh, radium and thermic induction mostly," answered Hooker. "And when I +want a rest I take a crack at the fourth dimension--spacial curvature's +my hobby. But I'm always working at radio stuff. That's where the big +things are going to be pulled off, you know." + +"Yes, of course," answered Thornton. He wondered if Hooker ever saw a +paper, how long since he had been out of the house. "By the way, did you +know Berlin had been taken?" he asked. + +"Berlin--in Germany, you mean?" + +"Yes, by the Russians." + +"No! Has it?" inquired Hooker with politeness. "Oh, I think some one did +mention it." + +Thornton fumbled for a cigarette and Bennie handed him a match. They +seemed to have extraordinarily little to say for men who hadn't seen +each other for twenty-six years. + +"I suppose," went on the astronomer, "you think it's deuced funny my +dropping in casually this way after all this time, but the fact is I +came on purpose. I want to get some information from you straight." + +"Go ahead!" said Bennie. "What's it about?" + +"Well, in a word," answered Thornton, "the earth's nearly a quarter of +an hour behind time." + +Hooker received this announcement with a polite interest but no +astonishment. + +"That's a how-de-do!" he remarked. "What's done it?" + +"That's what I want you to tell _me_," said Thornton sternly. "What +_could_ do it?" + +Hooker unlaced his legs and strolled over to the mantel. + +"Have a cracker?" he asked, helping himself. Then he picked up a piece +of wood and began whittling. "I suppose there's the devil to pay?" he +suggested. "Things upset and so on? Atmospheric changes? When did it +happen?" + +"About three weeks ago. Then there's this Sahara business." + +"What Sahara business?" + +"Haven't you heard?" + +"No," answered Hooker rather impatiently. "I haven't heard anything. I +haven't any time to read the papers; I'm too busy. My thermic inductor +transformers melted last week and I'm all in the air. What was it?" + +"Oh, never mind now," said Thornton hurriedly, perceiving that Hooker's +ignorance was an added asset. He'd get his science pure, uncontaminated +by disturbing questions of fact. "How about the earth's losing that +quarter of an hour?" + +"Of course she's off her orbit," remarked Hooker in a detached way. "And +you want to know what's done it? Don't blame you. I suppose you've gone +into the possibilities of stellar attraction." + +"Discount that!" ordered Thornton. "What I want to know is whether it +could happen from the inside?" + +"Why not?" inquired Hooker. "A general shift in the mass would do it. So +would the mere application of force at the proper point." + +"It never happened before." + +"Of course not. Neither had seedless oranges until Burbank came along," +said Hooker. + +"Do you regard it as possible by any human agency?" inquired Thornton. + +"Why not?" repeated Hooker. "All you need is the energy. And it's lying +all round if you could only get at it. That's just what I'm working at +now. Radium, uranium, thorium, actinium--all the radioactive +elements--are, as everybody knows, continually disintegrating, +discharging the enormous energy that is imprisoned in their molecules. +It may take generations, epochs, centuries, for them to get rid of it +and transform themselves into other substances, but they will inevitably +do so eventually. They're doing with more or less of a rush what all the +elements are doing at their leisure. A single ounce of uranium contains +about the same amount of energy that could be produced by the combustion +of ten tons of coal--but it won't let the energy go. Instead it holds on +to it, and the energy leaks slowly, almost imperceptibly, away, like +water from a big reservoir tapped only by a tiny pipe. 'Atomic energy' +Rutherford calls it. Every element, every substance, has its ready to be +touched off and put to use. The chap who can find out how to release +that energy all at once will revolutionize the civilized world. It will +be like the discovery that water could be turned into steam and made to +work for us--multiplied a million times. If, instead of that energy just +oozing away and the uranium disintegrating infinitesimally each year, it +could be exploded at a given moment you could drive an ocean liner with +a handful of it. You could make the old globe stagger round and turn +upside down! Mankind could just lay off and take a holiday. But _how_?" + +Bennie enthusiastically waved his pipe at Thornton. + +"How! That's the question. Everybody's known about the possibilities, +for Soddy wrote a book about it; but nobody's ever suggested where the +key could be found to unlock that treasure-house of energy. Some chap +made up a novel once and pretended it was done, but he didn't say _how_. +But"--and he lowered his voice passionately--"I'm working at it, +and--and--I've nearly--nearly got it." + +Thornton, infected by his friend's excitement, leaned forward in his +chair. + +"Yes--nearly. If only my transformers hadn't melted! You see I got the +idea from Savaroff, who noticed that the activity of radium and other +elements wasn't constant, but varied with the degree of solar activity, +reaching its maximum at the periods when the sun spots were most +numerous. In other words, he's shown that the breakdown of the atoms of +radium and the other radioactive elements isn't spontaneous, as Soddy +and others had thought, but is due to the action of certain extremely +penetrating rays given out by the sun. These particular rays are the +result of the enormous temperature of the solar atmosphere, and their +effect upon radioactive substances is analogous to that of the +detonating cap upon dynamite. No one has been able to produce these rays +in the laboratory, although Hempel has suspected sometimes that traces +of them appeared in the radiations from powerful electric sparks. +Everything came to a halt until Hiroshito discovered thermic induction, +and we were able to elevate temperature almost indefinitely through a +process similar to the induction of high electric potentials by means of +transformers and the Ruhmkorff coil. + +"Hiroshito wasn't looking for a detonating ray and didn't have time to +bother with it, but I started a series of experiments with that end in +view. I got close--I am close, but the trouble has been to control the +forces set in motion, for the rapid rise in temperature has always +destroyed the apparatus." + +Thornton whistled. "And when you succeed?" he asked in a whisper. + +Hooker's face was transfigured. + +"When I succeed I shall control the world," he cried, and his voice +trembled. "But the damn thing either melts or explodes," he added with a +tinge of indignation. + +"You know about Hiroshito's experiments, of course; he used a quartz +bulb containing a mixture of neon gas and the vapour of mercury, placed +at the centre of a coil of silver wire carrying a big oscillatory +current. This induced a ring discharge in the bulb, and the temperature +of the vapour mixture rose until the bulb melted. He calculated that the +temperature of that part of the vapour which carried the current was +over 6,000 deg.. You see, the ring discharge is not in contact with the wall +of the bulb, and can consequently be much hotter. It's like this." Here +Bennie drew with a burnt match on the back of an envelope a diagram of +something which resembled a doughnut in a chianti flask. + +Thornton scratched his head. "Yes," he said, "but that's an old +principle, isn't it? Why does Hiro--what's his name--call it--thermic +induction?" + +"Oriental imagination, probably," replied Bennie. "Hiroshito observed +that a sudden increase in the temperature of the discharge occurred at +the moment when the silver coil of his transformer became white hot, +which he explained by some mysterious inductive action of the heat +vibrations. I don't follow him at all. His theory's probably all wrong, +but he delivered the goods. He gave me the right tip, even if I have got +him lashed to the mast now. I use a tungsten spiral in a nitrogen +atmosphere in my transformer and replace the quartz bulb with a capsule +of zircorundum." + +"A capsule of what?" asked Thornton, whose chemistry was mid-Victorian. + +"Zircorundum," said Bennie, groping around in a drawer of his work +table. "It's an absolute nonconductor of heat. Look here, just stick +your finger in that." He held out to Thornton what appeared to be a +small test tube of black glass. Thornton, with a slight moral +hesitation, did as he was told, and Bennie, whistling, picked up the +oxyacetylene blowpipe, regarding it somewhat as a dog fancier might gaze +at an exceptionally fine pup. "Hold up your finger," said he to the +astronomer. "That's right--like that!" + +Thrusting the blowpipe forward, he allowed the hissing blue-white flame +to wrap itself round the outer wall of the tube--a flame which Thornton +knew could melt its way through a block of steel--but the astronomer +felt no sensation of heat, although he not unnaturally expected the +member to be incinerated. + +"Queer, eh?" said Bennie. "Absolute insulation! Beats the thermos +bottle, and requires no vacuum. It isn't quite what I want though, +because the disintegrating rays which the ring discharge gives out break +down the zirconium, which isn't an end-product of radioactivity. The +pressure in the capsule rises, due to the liberation of helium, and it +blows up, and the landlady or the police come up and bother me." + +Thornton was scrutinizing Bennie's rough diagram. "This ring discharge," +he meditated; "I wonder if it isn't something like a sunspot. You know +the spots are electron vortices with strong magnetic fields. I'll bet +you the Savaroff disintegrating rays come from the spots and not from +the whole surface of the sun!" + +"My word," said Bennie, with a grin of delight, "you occasionally have +an illuminating idea, even if you are a musty astronomer. I always +thought you were a sort of calculating machine, who slept on a logarithm +table. I owe you two drinks for that suggestion, and to scare a thirst +into you I'll show you an experiment that no living human being has ever +seen before. I can't make very powerful disintegrating rays yet, but I +can break down uranium, which is the easiest of all. Later on I'll be +able to disintegrate anything, if I have luck--that is, anything except +end-products. Then you'll see things fly. But, for the present, just +this." He picked up a thin plate of white metal. "This is the metal +we're going to attack, uranium--the parent of radium--and the whole +radioactive series, ending with the end-product lead." + +He hung the plate by two fine wires fastened to its corners, and +adjusted a coil of wire opposite its centre, while within the coil he +slipped a small black capsule. + +"This is the best we can do now," he said. "The capsule is made of +zircorundum, and we shall get only a trace of the disintegrating rays +before it blows up. But you'll see 'em, or, rather, you'll see the +lavender phosphorescence of the air through which they pass." + +He arranged a thick slab of plate glass between Thornton and the thermic +transformer, and stepping to the wall closed a switch. An oscillatory +spark discharge started off with a roar in a closed box, and the coil of +wire became white hot. + +"Watch the plate!" shouted Bennie. + +And Thornton watched. + +For ten or fifteen seconds nothing happened, and then a faint beam of +pale lavender light shot out from the capsule, and the metal plate swung +away from the incandescent coil as if blown by a gentle breeze. + +Almost instantly there was a loud report and a blinding flash of yellow +light so brilliant that for the next instant or two to Thornton's eyes +the room seemed dark. Slowly the afternoon light regained its normal +quality. Bennie relit his pipe unconcernedly. + +"That's the germ of the idea," he said between puffs. "That capsule +contains a mixture of vapours that give out disintegrating rays when the +temperature is raised by thermic induction above six thousand. Most of +'em are stopped by the zirconium atoms in the capsule, which break down +and liberate helium; and the temperature rises in the capsule until it +explodes, as you saw just now, with a flash of yellow helium light. The +rays that get out strike the uranium plate and cause the surface layer +of molecules to disintegrate, their products being driven off by the +atomic explosions with a velocity about equal to that of light, and it's +the recoil that deflects and swings the plate. The amount of uranium +decomposed in this experiment couldn't be detected by the most delicate +balance--small mass, but enormous velocity. See?" + +"Yes, I understand," answered Thornton. "It's the old, 'momentum equals +mass times velocity,' business we had in mechanics." + +"Of course this is only a toy experiment," Bennie continued. "It is what +the dancing pithballs of Franklin's time were to the multipolar, +high-frequency dynamo. But if we could control this force and handle it +on a large scale we could do anything with it--destroy the world, drive +a car against gravity off into space, shift the axis of the earth +perhaps!" + +It came to Thornton as he sat there, cigarette in hand, that poor Bennie +Hooker was going to receive the disappointment of his life. Within the +next five minutes his dreams would be dashed to earth, for he would +learn that another had stepped down to the pool of discovery before him. +For how many years, he wondered, had Bennie toiled to produce his +mysterious ray that should break down the atom and release the store of +energy that the genii of Nature had concealed there. And now Thornton +must tell him that all his efforts had gone for nothing! + +"And you believe that any one who could generate a ray such as you +describe could control the motion of the earth?" he asked. + +"Of course, certainly," answered Hooker. "He could either disintegrate +such huge quantities of matter that the mass of the earth would be +shifted and its polar axis be changed, or if radioactive +substances--pitchblende, for example--lay exposed upon the earth's +surface he could cause them to discharge their helium and other products +at such an enormous velocity that the recoil or reaction would +accelerate or retard the motion of the globe. It would be quite +feasible, quite simple--all one would need would be the disintegrating +ray." + +And then Thornton told Hooker of the flight of the giant Ring machine +from the north and the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas through the +apparent instrumentality of a ray of lavender light. Hooker's face +turned slightly pale and his unshaven mouth tightened. Then a smile of +exaltation illuminated his features. + +"He's done it!" he cried joyously. "He's done it on an engineering +scale. We pure-science dreamers turn up our noses at the engineers, but +I tell you the improvements in the apparatus part of the game come when +there is a big commercial demand for a thing and the engineering chaps +take hold of it. But _who_ is he and _where_ is he? I must get to him. I +don't suppose I can teach him much, but I've got a magnificent +experiment that we can try together." + +He turned to a littered writing-table and poked among the papers that +lay there. + +"You see," he explained excitedly, "if there is anything in the quantum +theory----Oh! but you don't care about that. The point is where _is_ the +chap?" + +And so Thornton had to begin at the beginning and tell Hooker all about +the mysterious messages and the phenomena that accompanied them. He +enlarged upon Pax's benignant intentions and the great problems +presented by the proposed interference of the United States Government +in Continental affairs, but Bennie swept them aside. The great thing, to +his mind, was to find and get into communication with Pax. + +"Ah! How he must feel! The greatest achievement of all time!" cried +Hooker radiantly. "How ecstatically happy! Earth blossoming like the +rose! Well-watered valleys where deserts were before. War abolished, +poverty, disease! Who can it be? Curie? No; she's bottled in Paris. +Posky, Langham, Varanelli--it can't be any one of those fellows. It +beats me! Some Hindoo or Jap maybe, but never Hiroshito! Now we must get +to him right away. So much to talk over." He walked round the room, +blundering into things, dizzy with the thought that his great dream had +come true. Suddenly he swept everything off the table on to the floor +and kicked his heels in the air. + +"Hooray!" he shouted, dancing round the room like a freshman. "Hooray! +Now I can take a holiday. And come to think of it, I'm as hungry as a +brontosaurus!" + +That night Thornton returned to Washington and was at the White House by +nine o'clock the following day. + +"It's all straight," he told the President. "The honestest man in the +United States has said so." + + + + +XI + + +The moon rose over sleeping Paris, silvering the silent reaches of the +Seine, flooding the deserted streets with mellow light, yet gently +retouching all the disfigurements of the siege. No lights illuminated +the cafes, no taxis dashed along the boulevards, no crowds loitered in +the Place de l'Opera or the Place Vendome. Yet save for these facts it +might have been the Paris of old time, unvisited by hunger, misery, or +death. The curfew had sounded. Every citizen had long since gone within, +extinguished his lights, and locked his door. Safe in the knowledge that +the Germans' second advance had been finally met and effectually blocked +sixty miles outside the walls, and that an armistice had been declared +to go into effect at midnight, Paris slumbered peacefully. + +Beyond the pellet-strewn fields and glacis of the second line of defence +the invader, after a series of terrific onslaughts, had paused, +retreated a few miles and intrenched himself, there to wait until the +starving city should capitulate. For four months he had waited, yet +Paris gave no sign of surrendering. On the contrary, it seemed to have +some mysterious means of self-support, and the war office, in daily +communication with London, reported that it could withstand the +investment for an indefinite period. Meantime the Germans reintrenched +themselves, built forts of their own upon which they mounted the siege +guns intended for the walls, and constructed an impregnable line of +entanglements, redoubts, and defences, which rendered it impossible for +any army outside the city to come to its relief. + +So rose the moon, turning white the millions of slate roofs, gilding the +traceries of the towers of Notre Dame, dimming the searchlights which, +like the antennae of gigantic fireflies, constantly played round the city +from the summit of the Eiffel Tower. So slept Paris, confident that no +crash of descending bombs would shatter the blue vault of the starlit +sky or rend the habitations in which lay two millions of human beings, +assured that the sun would rise through the gray mists of the Seine upon +the ancient beauties of the Tuilleries and the Louvre unmarred by the +enemy's projectiles, and that its citizens could pass freely along its +boulevards without menace of death from flying missiles. For no shell +could be hurled a distance of sixty miles, and an armistice had been +declared. + + * * * * * + +Behind a small hill within the German fortifications a group of officers +stood in the moonlight, examining what looked superficially like the +hangar of a small dirigible. Nestling behind the hill it cast a black +rectangular shadow upon the trampled sand of the redoubt. A score of +artisans were busy filling a deep trench through which a huge pipe led +off somewhere--a sort of deadly plumbing, for the house sheltered a +monster cannon reenforced by jackets of lead and steel, the whole +encased in a cooling apparatus of intricate manufacture. From the open +end of the house the cylindrical barrel of the gigantic engine of war +raised itself into the air at an angle of forty degrees, and from the +muzzle to the ground below it was a drop of over eighty feet. On a track +running off to the north rested the projectiles side by side, resembling +in the dim light a row of steam boilers in the yard of a locomotive +factory. + +"Well," remarked one of the officers, turning to the only one of his +companions not in uniform. "'Thanatos' is ready." + +The man addressed was Von Heckmann, the most famous inventor of military +ordnance in the world, already four times decorated for his services to +the Emperor. + +"The labour of nine years!" he answered with emotion. "Nine long years +of self-denial and unremitting study! But to-night I shall be repaid, +repaid a thousand times." + +The officers shook hands with him one after the other, and the group +broke up; the men who were filling the trench completed their labours +and departed; and Von Heckmann and the major-general of artillery alone +remained, except for the sentries beside the gun. The night was balmy +and the moon rode in a cloudless sky high above the hill. They crossed +the enclosure, followed by the two sentinels, and entering a passage +reached the outer wall of the redoubt, which was in turn closed and +locked. Here the sentries remained, but Von Heckmann and the general +continued on behind the fortifications for some distance. + +"Well, shall we start the ball?" asked the general, laying his hand on +Von Heckmann's shoulder. But the inventor found it so hard to master his +emotion that he could only nod his head. Yet the ball to which the +general alluded was the discharging of a fiendish war machine toward an +unsuspecting and harmless city alive with sleeping people, and the +emotion of the inventor was due to the fact that he had devised and +completed the most atrocious engine of death ever conceived by the mind +of man--the Relay Gun. Horrible as is the thought, this otherwise normal +man had devoted nine whole years to the problem of how to destroy human +life at a distance of a hundred kilometres, and at last he had been +successful, and an emperor had placed with his own divinely appointed +hands a ribbon over the spot beneath which his heart should have been. + +The projectile of this diabolical invention was ninety-five centimetres +in diameter, and was itself a rifled mortar, which in full flight, +twenty miles from the gun and at the top of its trajectory, exploded in +mid-air, hurling forward its contained projectile with an additional +velocity of three thousand feet per second. This process repeated +itself, the final or core bomb, weighing over three hundred pounds and +filled with lyddite, reaching its mark one minute and thirty-five +seconds after the firing of the gun. This crowning example of the human +mind's destructive ingenuity had cost the German Government five million +marks and had required three years for its construction, and by no means +the least of its devilish capacities was that of automatically reloading +and firing itself at the interval of every ten seconds, its muzzle +rising, falling, or veering slightly from side to side with each +discharge, thus causing the shells to fall at wide distances. The +poisonous nature of the immense volumes of gas poured out by the +mastodon when in action necessitated the withdrawal of its crew to a +safe distance. But once set in motion it needed no attendant. It had +been tested by a preliminary shot the day before, which had been +directed to a point several miles outside the walls of Paris, the effect +of which had been observed and reported by high-flying German aeroplanes +equipped with wireless. Everything was ready for the holocaust. + +Von Heckmann and the general of artillery continued to make their way +through the intrenchments and other fortifications, until at a distance +of about a quarter of a mile from the redoubt where they had left the +Relay Gun they arrived at a small whitewashed cottage. + +"I have invited a few of my staff to join us," said the general to the +inventor, "in order that they may in years to come describe to their +children and their grandchildren this, the most momentous occasion in +the history of warfare." + +They turned the corner of the cottage and came upon a group of officers +standing by the wooden gate of the cottage, all of whom saluted at their +approach. + +"Good evening, gentlemen," said the general. "I beg to present the +members of my staff," turning to Von Heckmann. + +The officers stood back while the general led the way into the cottage, +the lower floor of which consisted of but a single room, used by the +recent tenants as a kitchen, dining-room, and living-room. At one end of +a long table, constructed by the regimental carpenter, supper had been +laid, and a tub filled with ice contained a dozen or more quarts of +champagne. Two orderlies stood behind the table, at the other end of +which was affixed a small brass switch connected with the redoubt and +controlled by a spring and button. The windows of the cottage were open, +and through them poured the light of the full moon, dimming the +flickering light of the candles upon the table. + +In spite of the champagne, the supper, and the boxes of cigars and +cigarettes, an atmosphere of solemnity was distinctly perceptible. It +was as if each one of these officers, hardened to human suffering by a +lifetime of discipline and active service, to say nothing of the years +of horror through which they had just passed, could not but feel that in +the last analysis the hurling upon an unsuspecting city of a rain of +projectiles containing the highest explosive known to warfare, at a +distance three times greater than that heretofore supposed to be +possible to science, and the ensuing annihilation of its inhabitants, +was something less for congratulation and applause than for sorrow and +regret. The officers, who had joked each other outside the gate, became +singularly quiet as they entered the cottage and gathered round the +table where Von Heckmann and the general had taken their stand by the +instrument. Utter silence fell upon the group. The mercury of their +spirits dropped from summer heat to below freezing. What was this thing +which they were about to do? + +Through the windows, at a distance of four hundred yards, the pounding +of the machinery which flooded the water jacket of the Relay Gun was +distinctly audible in the stillness of the night. The pressure of a +finger--a little finger--upon that electric button was all that was +necessary to start the torrent of iron and high explosives toward Paris. +By the time the first shell would reach its mark nine more would be on +their way, stretched across the midnight sky at intervals of less than +eight miles. And once started the stream would continue uninterrupted +for two hours. The fascinated eyes of all the officers fastened +themselves upon the key. None spoke. + +"Well, well, gentlemen!" exclaimed the general brusquely, "what is the +matter with you? You act as if you were at a funeral! Hans," turning to +the orderly, "open the champagne there. Fill the glasses. Bumpers all, +gentlemen, for the greatest inventor of all times, Herr von Heckmann, +the inventor of the Relay Gun!" + +The orderly sprang forward and hastily commenced uncorking bottles, +while Von Heckmann turned away to the window. + +"Here, this won't do, Schelling! You must liven things up a bit!" +continued the general to one of the officers. "This is a great occasion +for all of us! Give me that bottle." He seized a magnum of champagne +from the orderly and commenced pouring out the foaming liquid into the +glasses beside the plates. Schelling made a feeble attempt at a joke at +which the officers laughed loudly, for the general was a martinet and +had to be humoured. + +"Now, then," called out the general as he glanced toward the window, +"Herr von Heckmann, we are going to drink your health! Officers of the +First Artillery, I give you a toast--a toast which you will all remember +to your dying day! Bumpers, gentlemen! No heel taps! I give you the +health of 'Thanatos'--the leviathan of artillery, the winged bearer of +death and destruction--and of its inventor, Herr von Heckmann. Bumpers, +gentlemen!" The general slapped Von Heckmann upon the shoulder and +drained his glass. + +"'Thanatos!' Von Heckmann!" shouted the officers. And with one accord +they dashed their goblets to the stone flagging upon which they stood. + +"And now, my dear inventor," said the general, "to you belongs the +honour of arousing 'Thanatos' into activity. Are you ready, gentlemen? I +warn you that when 'Thanatos' snores the rafters will ring." + +Von Heckmann had stood with bowed head while the officers had drunk his +health, and he now hesitatingly turned toward the little brass switch +with its button of black rubber that glistened so innocently in the +candlelight. His right hand trembled. He dashed the back of his left +across his eyes. The general took out a large silver watch from his +pocket. "Fifty-nine minutes past eleven," he announced. "At one minute +past twelve Paris will be disembowelled. Put your finger on the button, +my friend. Let us start the ball rolling." + +Von Heckmann cast a glance almost of disquietude upon the faces of the +officers who were leaning over the table in the intensity of their +excitement. His elation, his exaltation, had passed from him. He seemed +overwhelmed at the momentousness of the act which he was about to +perform. Slowly his index finger crept toward the button and hovered +half suspended over it. He pressed his lips together and was about to +exert the pressure required to transmit the current of electricity to +the discharging apparatus when unexpectedly there echoed through the +night the sharp click of a horse's hoofs coming at a gallop down the +village street. The group turned expectantly to the doorway. + +An officer dressed in the uniform of an aide-de-camp of artillery +entered abruptly, saluted, and produced from the inside pocket of his +jacket a sealed envelope which he handed to the general. The interest of +the officers suddenly centred upon the contents of the envelope. The +general grumbled an oath at the interruption, tore open the missive, and +held the single sheet which it contained to the candlelight. + +"An armistice!" he cried disgustedly. His eye glanced rapidly over the +page. + + "_To the Major-General commanding the First Division of Artillery, + Army of the Meuse:_ + + "An armistice has been declared, to commence at midnight, pending + negotiations for peace. You will see that no acts of hostility + occur until you receive notice that war is to be resumed. + + "VON HELMUTH, + "Imperial Commissioner for War." + +The officers broke into exclamations of impatience as the general +crumpled the missive in his hand and cast it upon the floor. + +"_Donnerwetter!_" he shouted. "Why were we so slow? Curse the +armistice!" He glanced at his watch. It already pointed to after +midnight. His face turned red and the veins in his forehead swelled. + +"To hell with peace!" he bellowed, turning back his watch until the +minute hand pointed to five minutes to twelve. "To hell with peace, I +say! Press the button, Von Heckmann!" + +But in spite of the agony of disappointment which he now acutely +experienced, Von Heckmann did not fire. Sixty years of German respect +for orders held him in a viselike grip and paralyzed his arm. + +"I can't," he muttered. "I can't." + +The general seemed to have gone mad. Thrusting Von Heckmann out of the +way, he threw himself into a chair at the end of the table and with a +snarl pressed the black handle of the key. + +The officers gasped. Hardened as they were to the necessities of war, no +act of insubordination like the present had ever occurred within their +experience. Yet they must all uphold the general; they must all swear +that the gun was fired before midnight. The key clicked and a blue bead +snapped at the switch. They held their breaths, looking through the +window to the west. + +At first the night remained still. Only the chirp of the crickets and +the fretting of the aide-de-camp's horse outside the cottage could be +heard. Then, like the grating of a coffee mill in a distant kitchen when +one is just waking out of a sound sleep, they heard the faint, smothered +whir of machinery, a sharper metallic ring of steel against steel +followed by a gigantic detonation which shook the ground upon which the +cottage stood and overthrew every glass upon the table. With a roar like +the fall of a skyscraper the first shell hurled itself into the night. +Half terrified the officers gripped their chairs, waiting for the second +discharge. The reverberation was still echoing among the hills when the +second detonation occurred, shortly followed by the third and fourth. +Then, in intervals between the crashing explosions, a distant rumbling +growl, followed by a shuddering of the air, as if the night were +frightened, came up out of the west toward Paris, showing that the +projectiles were at the top of their flight and going into action. A +lake of yellow smoke formed in the pocket behind the hill where lay the +redoubt in which "Thanatos" was snoring. + +On the great race track of Longchamps, in the Bois de Boulogne, the vast +herd of cows, sheep, horses, and goats, collected together by the city +government of Paris and attended by fifty or sixty shepherds especially +imported from _les Landes_, had long since ceased to browse and had +settled themselves down into the profound slumber of the animal world, +broken only by an occasional bleating or the restless whinnying of a +stallion. On the race course proper, in front of the grandstand and +between it and the judge's box, four of these shepherds had built a +small fire and by its light were throwing dice for coppers. They were +having an easy time of it, these shepherds, for their flocks did not +wander, and all that they had to do was to see that the animals were +properly driven to such parts of the Bois as would afford proper +nourishment. + +"Well, _mes enfants_," exclaimed old Adrian Bannalec, pulling a +turnip-shaped watch from beneath his blouse and holding it up to the +firelight, "it's twelve o'clock and time to turn in. But what do you say +to a cup of chocolate first?" + +The others greeted the suggestion with approval, and going somewhere +underneath the grandstand, Bannalec produced a pot filled with water, +which he suspended with much dexterity over the fire upon the end of a +pointed stick. The water began to boil almost immediately, and they were +on the point of breaking their chocolate into it when, from what +appeared to be an immense distance, through the air there came a curious +rumble. + +"What was that?" muttered Bannalec. The sound was followed within a few +seconds by another, and after a similar interval by a third and fourth. + +"There was going to be an armistice," suggested one of the younger +herdsmen. He had hardly spoken before a much louder and apparently +nearer detonation occurred. + +"That must be one of our guns," said old Adrian proudly. "Do you hear +how much louder it speaks than those of the Germans?" + +Other discharges now followed in rapid succession, some fainter, some +much louder. And then somewhere in the sky they saw a flash of flame, +followed by a thunderous concussion which rattled the grandstand, and a +great fiery serpent came soaring through the heavens toward Paris. Each +moment it grew larger, until it seemed to be dropping straight toward +them out of the sky, leaving a trail of sparks behind it. + +"It's coming our way," chattered Adrian. + +"God have mercy upon us!" murmured the others. + +Rigid with fear, they stood staring with open mouths at the shell that +seemed to have selected them for the object of its flight. + +"God have mercy on our souls!" repeated Adrian after the others. + +Then there came a light like that of a million suns.... + +Alas for the wives and children of the herdsmen! And alas for the herds! +But better that the eight core bombs projected by "Thanatos" through the +midnight sky toward Paris should have torn the foliage of the Bois, +destroyed the grandstands of Auteuil and Longchamps, with sixteen +hundred innocent sheep and cattle, than that they should have sought +their victims among the crowded streets of the inner city. Lucky for +Paris that the Relay Gun had been sighted so as to sweep the metropolis +from the west to the east, and that though each shell approached nearer +to the walls than its preceding brother, none reached the ramparts. For +with the discharge of the eighth shell and the explosion of the first +core bomb filled with lyddite among the sleeping animals huddled on the +turf in front of the grandstands, something happened which the poor +shepherds did not see. + +The watchers in the Eiffel Tower, seeing the heavens with their +searchlights for German planes and German dirigibles, saw the first core +bomb bore through the sky from the direction of Verdun, followed by its +seven comrades, and saw each bomb explode in the Bois below. But as the +first shell shattered the stillness of the night and spread its +sulphureous and death-dealing fumes among the helpless cattle, the +watchers on the Tower saw a vast light burst skyward in the far-distant +east. + + * * * * * + +Two miles up the road from the village of Champaubert, Karl Biedenkopf, +a native of Hesse-Nassau and a private of artillery, was doing picket +duty. The moonlight turned the broad highroad toward Epernay into a +gleaming white boulevard down which he could see, it seemed to him, for +miles. The air was soft and balmy, and filled with the odour of hay +which the troopers had harvested "on behalf of the Kaiser." Across the +road "Gretchen," Karl's mare, grazed ruminatively, while the picket +himself sat on the stone wall by the roadside, smoking the Bremen cigar +which his corporal had given him after dinner. + +The night was thick with stars. They were all so bright that at first he +did not notice the comet which sailed slowly toward him from the +northwest, seemingly following the line of the German intrenchments from +Amiens, St.-Quentin, and Laon toward Rheims and Epernay. But the comet +was there, dropping a long yellow beam of light upon the sleeping hosts +that were beleaguering the outer ring of the French fortifications. +Suddenly the repose of Biedenkopf's retrospections was abruptly +disconcerted by the distant pounding of hoofs far down the road from +Verdun. He sprang off the wall, took up his rifle, crossed the road, +hastily adjusted "Gretchen's" bridle, leaped into the saddle, and +awaited the night rider, whoever he might be. At a distance of three +hundred feet he cried: "Halt!" The rider drew rein, hastily gave the +countersign, and Biedenkopf, recognizing the aide-de-camp, saluted and +drew aside. + +"There goes a lucky fellow," he said aloud. "Nothing to do but ride up +and down the roads, stopping wherever he sees a pleasant inn or a pretty +face, spending money like water, and never risking a hair of his head." + +It never occurred to him that maybe his was the luck. And while the +aide-de-camp galloped on and the sound of his horse's hoofs grew fainter +and fainter down the road toward the village, the comet came sailing +swiftly on overhead, deluging the fortifications with a blinding +orange-yellow light. It could not have been more than a mile away when +Biedenkopf saw it. Instantly his trained eye recognized the fact that +this strange round object shooting through the air was no wandering +celestial body. + +"_Ein Flieger!_" he cried hoarsely, staring at it in astonishment, +knowing full well that no dirigible or aeroplane of German manufacture +bore any resemblance to this extraordinary voyager of the air. + +A hundred yards down the road his field telephone was attached to a +poplar, and casting one furtive look at the Flying Ring he galloped to +the tree and rang up the corporal of the guard. But at the very instant +that his call was answered a series of terrific detonations shook the +earth and set the wires roaring in the receiver, so that he could hear +nothing. One--two--three--four of them, followed by a distant answering +boom in the west. + +And then the whole sky seemed full of fire. He was hurled backward upon +the road and lay half-stunned, while the earth discharged itself into +the air with a roar like that of ten thousand shells exploding all +together. The ground shook, groaned, grumbled, grated, and showers of +boards, earth, branches, rocks, vegetables, tiles, and all sorts of +unrecognizable and grotesque objects fell from the sky all about him. It +was like a gigantic and never-ending mine, or series of mines, in +continuous explosion, a volcano pouring itself upward out of the bowels +of an incandescent earth. Above the earsplitting thunder of the eruption +he heard shrill cries and raucous shoutings. Mounted men dashed past him +down the road, singly and in squadrons. A molten globe dropped through +the branches of the poplar, and striking the hard surface of the road at +a distance of fifty yards scattered itself like a huge ingot dropped +from a blast furnace. Great clouds of dust descended and choked him. A +withering heat enveloped him.... + +It was noon next day when Karl Biedenkopf raised his head and looked +about him. He thought first there had been a battle. But the sight that +met his eyes bore no resemblance to a field of carnage. Over his head he +noticed that the uppermost branches of the poplar had been seared as by +fire. The road looked as if the countryside had been traversed by a +hurricane. All sorts of debris filled the fields and everywhere there +seemed to be a thick deposit of blackened earth. Vaguely realizing that +he must report for duty, he crawled, in spite of his bursting head and +aching limbs, on all fours down the road toward the village. + +But he could not find the village. There was no village there; and soon +he came to what seemed to be the edge of a gigantic crater, where the +earth had been uprooted and tossed aside as if by some huge convulsion +of nature. Here and there masses of inflammable material smoked and +flickered with red flames. His eyes sought the familiar outlines of the +redoubts and fortifications, but found them not. And where the village +had been there was a great cavern in the earth, and the deepest part of +the cavern, or so it seemed to his half-blinded sight, was at about the +point where the cottage had stood which his general had used as his +headquarters, the spot where the night before that general had raised +his glass of bubbling wine and toasted "Thanatos," the personification +of death, and called his officers to witness that this was the greatest +moment in the history of warfare, a moment that they would all remember +to their dying day. + + + + +XII + + +The shabby-genteel little houses of the Appian Way, in Cambridge, whose +window-eyes with their blue-green lids had watched Bennie Hooker come +and go, trudging back and forth to lectures and recitations, first as +boy and then as man, for thirty years, must have blinked with amazement +at the sight of the little professor as he started on the afterward +famous Hooker Expedition to Labrador in search of the Flying Ring. + +For the five days following Thornton's unexpected visit Bennie, existing +without sleep and almost without food save for his staple of +ready-to-serve chocolate, was the centre of a whirl of books, +logarithms, and calculations in the University Library, and constituted +himself an unmitigated, if respected, pest at the Cambridge Observatory. +Moreover--and this was the most iconoclastic spectacle of all to his +conservative pedagogical neighbours in the Appian Way--telegraph boys on +bicycles kept rushing to and fro in a stream between the Hooker +boarding-house and Harvard Square at all hours of the day and night. + +For Bennie had lost no time and had instantly started in upon the same +series of experiments to locate the origin of the phenomena which had +shaken the globe as had been made use of by Professor von Schwenitz at +the direction of General von Helmuth, the Imperial German Commissioner +for War, at Mainz. The result had been approximately identical, and +Hooker had satisfied himself that somewhere in the centre of Labrador +his fellow-scientist--the discoverer of the Lavender Ray--was conducting +the operations that had resulted in the dislocation of the earth's axis +and retardation of its motion. Filled with a pure and unselfish +scientific joy, it became his sole and immediate ambition to find the +man who had done these things, to shake him by the hand, and to compare +notes with him upon the now solved problems of thermic induction and of +atomic disintegration. + +But how to get there? How to reach him? For Prof. Bennie Hooker had +never been a hundred miles from Cambridge in his life, and a journey to +Labrador seemed almost as difficult as an attempt to reach the pole. Off +again then to the University Library, with pale but polite young ladies +hastening to fetch him atlases, charts, guidebooks, and works dealing +with sport and travel, until at last the great scheme unfolded itself to +his mind--the scheme that was to result in the perpetuation of atomic +disintegration for the uses of mankind and the subsequent alteration of +civilization, both political and economic. Innocently, ingeniously, +ingenuously, he mapped it all out. No one must know what he was about. +Oh, no! He must steal away, in disguise if need be, and reach Pax alone. +Three would be a crowd in that communion of scientific thought! He must +take with him the notes of his own experiments, the diagrams of his +apparatus, and his precious zirconium; and he must return with the great +secret of atomic disintegration in his breast, ready, with the +discoverer's permission, to give it to the dry and thirsty world. And +then, indeed, the earth would blossom like the rose! + +A strange sight, the start of the Hooker Expedition! + +Doctor Jelly's coloured housemaid had just thrown a pail of blue-gray +suds over his front steps--it was 6:30 A.M.--and was on the point of +resignedly kneeling and swabbing up the doctor's porch, when she saw the +door of the professor's residence open cautiously and a curious human +exhibit, the like of which had ne'er before been seen on sea or land, +surreptitiously emerge. It was Prof. Bennie Hooker--disguised as a +salmon fisherman! + +Over a brand-new sportsman's knickerbocker suit of screaming yellow +check he had donned an English mackintosh. On his legs were gaiters, and +on his head a helmetlike affair of cloth with a visor in front and +another behind, with eartabs fastened at the crown with a piece of black +ribbon--in other words a "Glengarry." The suit had been manufactured in +Harvard Square, and was a triumph of sartorial art on the part of one +who had never been nearer to a real fisherman than a coloured fashion +plate. However, it did suggest a sportsman of the variety usually +portrayed in the comic supplements, and, to complete the picture, in +Professor Hooker's hands and under his arms were yellow pigskin bags and +rod cases, so that he looked like the show window of a harness store. + +"Fo' de land sakes!" exclaimed the Jellys' coloured maid, oblivious of +her suds. "Fo' de Lawd! Am dat Perfesser Hookey?" + +It was! But a new and glorified professor, with a soul thrilling to the +joy of discovery and romance, with a flash in his eyes, and the savings +of ten years in a large roll in his left-hand knickerbocker pocket. + +Thus started the Hooker Expedition, which discovered the Flying Ring and +made the famous report to the Smithsonian Institution after the +disarmament of the nations. But could the nations have seen the +expedition as it emerged from its boarding-house that September morning +they would have rubbed their eyes. + +With the utmost difficulty Prof. Bennie Hooker negotiated his bags and +rod cases as far as Harvard Square, where, through the assistance of a +friendly conductor with a sense of humour, he was enabled to board an +electric surface car to the North Station. + +Beyond the start up the River Moisie his imagination refused to carry +him. But he had a faith that approximated certainty that over the Height +of Land--just over the edge--he would find Pax and the Flying Ring. +During all the period required for his experiments and preparations he +had never once glanced at a newspaper or inquired as to the progress of +the war that was rapidly exterminating the inhabitants of the globe. +Thermic induction, atomic disintegration, the Lavender Ray, these were +the Alpha, the Sigma, the Omega of his existence. + +But meantime[3] the war had gone on with all its concomitant horror, +suffering, and loss of life, and the representatives of the nations +assembled at Washington had been feverishly attempting to unite upon the +terms of a universal treaty that should end militarism and war forever. +And thereafter, also, although Professor Hooker was sublimely +unconscious of the fact, the celebrated conclave, known as Conference +No. 2, composed of the best-known scientific men from every laud, was +sitting, perspiring, in the great lecture hall of the Smithsonian +Institution, its members shouting at one another in a dozen different +languages, telling each other what they did and didn't know, and +becoming more and more confused and entangled in an underbrush of +contradictory facts and observations and irreconcilable theories until +they were making no progress whatever--which was precisely what the +astute and plausible Count von Koenitz, the German Ambassador, had +planned and intended. + +[Footnote 3: Up to the date of the armistice.] + +The Flying Ring did not again appear, and in spite of the uncontroverted +testimony of Acting-Consul Quinn, Mohammed Ben Ali el Bad, and a +thousand others who had actually seen the Lavender Ray, people began +gradually, almost unconsciously, to assume that the destruction of the +Atlas Mountains had been the work of an unsuspected volcano and that the +presence of the Flying Ring had been a coincidence and not the cause of +the disruption. So the incident passed by and public attention +refocussed itself upon the conflict on the plains of Chalons-sur-Marne. +Only Bill Hood, Thornton, and a few others in the secret, together with +the President, the Cabinet, and the members of Conference No. 1 and of +Conference No. 2, truly apprehended the significance of what had +occurred, and realized that either war or the human race must pass away +forever. And no one at all, save only the German Ambassador and the +Imperial German Commissioners, suspected that one of the nations had +conceived and was putting into execution a plan designed to result in +the acquirement of the secret of how the earth could be rocked and in +the capture of the discoverer. For the _Sea Fox_, bearing the German +expeditionary force, had sailed from Amsterdam twelve days after the +conference held at Mainz between Professor von Schwenitz and General von +Helmuth, and having safely rounded the Orkneys was now already well on +its course toward Labrador. Bennie Hooker, however, was ignorant of all +these things. Like an immigrant with a tag on his arm, he sat on the +train which bore him toward Quebec, his ticket stuck into the band on +his hat, dreaming of a transformer that wouldn't--couldn't--melt at only +six thousand degrees. + +When Professor Hooker awoke in his room at the hotel in Quebec the +morning after his arrival there, he ate a leisurely breakfast, and +having smoked a pipe on the terrace, strolled down to the wharves along +the river front. Here to his disgust he learned that the Labrador +steamer, the _Druro_, would not sail until the following Thursday--a +three days' wait. Apparently Labrador was a less-frequented locality +than he had supposed. He mastered his impatience, however, and +discovering a library presided over by a highly intelligent graduate of +Edinburgh, he became so interested in various profound treatises on +physics which he discovered that he almost missed his boat. + +Assisted by the head porter, and staggering under the weight of his new +rod cases and other impedimenta, Bennie boarded the _Druro_ on Thursday +morning, engaged a stateroom, and purchased a ticket for Seven Islands, +which is the nearest harbour to the mouth of the River Moisie. She was a +large and comfortable river steamer of about eight hundred and fifty +tons, and from her appearance belied the fact that she was the +connecting link between civilization and the desolate and ice-clad +wastes of the Far North, as in fact she was. The captain regarded Bennie +with indifference, if not disrespect, grunted, and ascending to the +pilot house blew the whistle. Quebec, with its teeming wharves and +crowded shipping, overlooked by the cliffs that made Wolfe famous, +slowly fell behind. Off their leeward bow the Isle of Orleans swung +nearer and swept past, its neat homesteads inviting the weary traveller +to pastoral repose. The river cleared. Low, farm-clad shores began to +slip by. The few tourists and returning habitans settled themselves in +the bow and made ready for their voyage. + +There would have been much to interest the ordinary American traveller +in this comparatively unfrequented corner of his native continent; but +our salmon fisherman, having conveniently disposed of his baggage, +immediately retired to his stateroom and, intent on saving time, +proceeded, wholly oblivious of the _Druro_, to read passionately several +exceedingly uninviting looking books which he produced from his valise. +The _Druro_, quite as oblivious to Professor Hooker, proceeded on her +accustomed way, passed by Tadousac, and made her first stop at the +Godbout. Bennie, finding the boat no longer in motion, reappeared on +deck under the mistaken impression that they had reached the end of the +voyage, for he was unfamiliar with the topography of the St. Lawrence, +and in fact had very vague ideas as to distances and the time required +to traverse them by rail or boat. + +At the Godbout the _Druro_ dropped a habitan or two, a few boatloads of +steel rods, crates of crockery and tobacco, and then thrust her bow out +into the stream and steered down river, rounding at length the Pointe +des Monts and winding in behind the Isles des Oeufs to the River +Pentecoute, where she deposited some more habitans, including a priest +in a black soutane, who somewhat incongruously was smoking a large +cigar. Then, nosing through a fog bank and breaking out at last into +sunlight again, she steamed across and put in past the Carousel, that +picturesque and rocky headland, into Seven Islands Bay. Here she +anchored, and, having discharged cargo, steamed out by the Grand Boule, +where eighteen miles beyond the islands Bennie saw the pilot house of +the old _St. Olaf_, of unhappy memory, just lifting above the water. + +He had emerged from the retirement of his stateroom only on being asked +by the steward for his ticket and learning that the _Druro_ was nearing +the end of her journey. For nearly two days he had been submerged in +Soddy on The Interpretation of Radium. The _Druro_ was running along a +sandy, low-lying beach about half a mile offshore. They were nearing the +mouth of a wide river. The volume of black fresh water from the Moisie +rushed out into the St. Lawrence until it met the green sea water, +causing a sharp demarcation of colour and a no less pronounced conflict +of natural forces. For, owing to the pressure of the tide against the +solid mass of the fresh stream, acres of water unexpectedly boiled on +all sides, throwing geysers of foam twenty feet or more into the air, +and then subsided. Off the point the engine bell rang twice, and the +_Druro_ came to a pause. + +Bennie, standing in the bow, in his sportsman's cap and waterproof, +hugging his rod cases to his breast, watched while a heterogeneous fleet +of canoes, skiffs, and sailboats came racing out from shore, for the +steamer does not land here, but hangs in the offing and lighters its +cargo ashore. Leading the lot was a sort of whaleboat propelled by two +oars on one side and one on the other, and in the sternsheets sat a +rosy-cheeked, good-natured looking man with a smooth-shaven face who +Bennie knew must be Malcolm Holliday. + +"Hello, Cap!" shouted Holliday. "Any passengers?" + +The captain from the pilot house waved contemptuously in Bennie's +general direction. + +"Howdy!" said Holliday. "What do you want? What can I do for you?" + +"I thought I'd try a little salmon fishing," shrieked Bennie back at +him. + +Holliday shook his head. "Sorry," he bellowed, "river's leased. Besides, +the officers[4] are here." + +[Footnote 4: Along the St. Lawrence and the Labrador coast a salmon +fisherman is always spoken of by natives and local residents as an +"officer," the reason being that most of the sportsmen who visit these +waters are English army officers. Hence salmon fishermen are universally +termed "officers," and a habitan will describe the sportsmen who have +rented a certain river as "_les officiers de la Moisie_" or "_les +officiers de la Romaine_."] + +"Oh!" answered Bennie ruefully. "I didn't know. I supposed I could fish +anywhere." + +"Well, you can't!" snapped Holliday, puzzled by the little man's curious +appearance. + +"I suppose I can go ashore, can't I?" insisted Bennie somewhat +indignantly. "I'll just take a camping trip then. I'd like to see the +big salmon cache up at the forks if I can't do anything else." + +Instantly Holliday scented something. "Another fellow after gold," he +muttered to himself. + +Just at that moment, the tide being at the ebb, a hundred acres of green +water off the _Druro's_ bow broke into whirling waves and jets of foam +again. All about them, and a mile to seaward, these merry men danced by +the score. Bennie thrilled at the beauty of it. The whaleboat containing +Holliday was now right under the ship's bows. + +"I want to look round anyhow," expostulated Bennie. "I've come all the +way from Boston." He felt himself treated like a criminal, felt the +suspicion in Holliday's eye. + +The factor laughed. "In that case you certainly deserve sympathy." Then +he hesitated. "Oh, well, come along," he said finally. "We'll see what +we can do for you." + +A rope ladder had been thrown over the side and one of the sailors now +lowered Bennie's luggage into the boat. The professor followed, avoiding +with difficulty stepping on his mackintosh as he climbed down the +slippery rounds. Holliday grasped his hand and yanked him to a seat in +the stern. + +"Yes," he repeated, "if you've come all the way from Boston I guess +we'll have to put you up for a few days anyway." + +A crate of canned goods, a parcel of mail, and a huge bundle of +newspapers were deposited in the bow. Holliday waved his hand. The +_Druro_ churned the water and swung out into midstream again. Bennie +looked curiously after her. To the north lay a sandy shore dotted by a +scraggy forest of dwarf spruce and birch. A few fishing huts and a mass +of wooden shanties fringed the forest. To the east, seaward, many miles +down that great stretch of treacherous, sullen river waited a gray bank +of fog. But overhead the air was crystalline with that sparkling, +scratchy brilliance that is found only in northern climes. Nature seemed +hard, relentless. With his feet entangled in rod cases Professor Hooker +wondered for a moment what on earth he was there for, landing on this +inhospitable coast. Then his eyes sought the genial face of Malcolm +Holliday and hope sprang up anew. For there is that about this genial +frontiersman that draws all men to him alike, be they Scotch or English, +Canadian habitans or Montagnais, and he is the king of the coast, as his +father was before him, or as was old Peter McKenzie, the head factor, +who incidentally cast the best salmon fly ever thrown east of Montreal +or south of Ungava. Bennie found comfort in Holliday's smile, and felt +toward him as a child does toward its mother. + +They neared shore and ran alongside a ramshackle pier, up the slippery +poles of which Bennie was instructed to clamber. Then, dodging rotten +boards and treacherous places, he gained the sand of the beach and stood +at last on Labrador. A group of Montagnais picked up the professor's +luggage and, headed by Holliday, they started for the latter's house. It +was a strange and amusing landing of an expedition the results of which +have revolutionized the life of the inhabitants of the entire globe. No +such inconspicuous event has ever had so momentous a conclusion. And now +when Malcolm Holliday makes his yearly trip home to Quebec, to report to +the firm of Holliday Brothers, who own all the nets far east of +Anticosti, he spends hours at the Club des Voyageurs, recounting in +detail all the circumstances surrounding the arrival of Professor Hooker +and how he took him for a gold hunter. + +"Anyhow," he finishes, "I knew he wasn't a salmon fisherman in spite of +his rods and cases, for he didn't know a Black Dose from a Thunder and +Lightning or a Jock Scott, and he thought you could catch salmon with a +worm!" + +It was true wholly. Bennie did suppose one killed the king of game fish +as he had caught minnows in his childhood, and his geologic researches +in the Harvard Library had not taught him otherwise. Neither had his +tailor. + +"My dear fellow," said Holliday as they smoked their pipes on the narrow +board piazza at the Post, "of course I'll help you all I can, but you've +come at a bad season of the year all round. In the first place, you'll +be eaten alive by black flies, gnats, and mosquitoes." He slapped +vigorously as he spoke. "And you'll have the devil of a job getting +canoe men. You see all the Montagnais are down here at the settlement +'making their mass.' Once a year they leave the hunting grounds up by +the Divide and beyond and come down river to '_faire la messe_'--it's a +sacred duty with 'em. They're very religious, as you probably know--a +fine lot, too, take 'em altogether, gentle, obedient, industrious, +polite, cheerful, and fair to middling honest. They have a good deal of +French blood--a bit diluted, but it's there." + +"Can't I get a few to go along with me?" asked Bennie anxiously. + +"That's a question," answered the factor meditatively. "You know how the +birds--how caribou--migrate every year. Well, these Montagnais are just +like them. They have a regular routine. Each man has a line of traps of +his own, all the way up to the Height of Land. They all go up river in +the autumn with their winter's supply of pork, flour, tea, powder, lead, +axes, files, rosin to mend their canoes, and castoreum--made out of +beaver glands, you know--to take away the smell of their hands from the +baited traps. They go up in families, six or seven canoes together, and +as each man reaches his own territory his canoe drops out of the +procession and he makes a camp for his wife and babies. Then he spends +the winter--six or seven months--in the woods following his line of +traps. By and by the ice goes out and he begins to want some society. He +hasn't seen a priest for ten months or so, and he's afraid of the +_loup-garou_, for all I know. So he comes down river, takes his Newport +season here at Moisie, and goes to mass and staves off the _loup-garou_. +They're all here now. Maybe you can get a couple to go up river and +maybe you can't." + +Then observing Bennie's crestfallen expression, he added: + +"But we'll see. Perhaps you can get Marc St. Ange and Edouard Moreau, +both good fellows. They've made their mass and they know the country +from here to Ungava. There's Marc now--_Venez ici_, Marc St. Ange." A +swarthy, lithe Montagnais was coming down the road, and Holliday +addressed him rapidly in habitan French: "This gentleman wishes to go up +river to the forks to see the big cache. Will you go with him?" + +The Montagnais bowed to Professor Hooker and pondered the suggestion. +Then he gesticulated toward the north and seemed to Bennie to be telling +a long story. + +Holliday laughed again. "Marc says he will go," he commented shortly. +"But he says also that if the Great Father of the Marionettes is angry +he will come back." + +"What does he mean by that?" asked Bennie. + +"Why, when the aurora borealis--Northern Lights--plays in the sky the +Indians always say that the 'marionettes are dancing.' About four weeks +ago we had some electrical disturbances up here and a kind of an +earthquake. It scared these Indians silly. There was a tremendous +display, almost like a volcano. It beat anything I ever saw, and I've +been here fifteen years. The Indians said the Father of the Marionettes +was angry because they didn't dance enough to suit him, and that he was +making them dance. Then some of them caught a glimpse of a shooting +star, or a comet, or something, and called it the Father of the +Marionettes. They had quite a time--held masses, and so on--and were +really cut up. But the thing is over now, except for the regular, +ordinary display." + +"When can they be ready?" inquired Bennie eagerly. + +"To-morrow morning," replied Holliday. "Marc will engage his uncle. +They're all right. Now how about an outfit? But don't talk any more +about salmon. I know what you're after--it's _gold_!" + + * * * * * + +The moon was still hanging low over the firs at four o'clock the next +morning when three black and silent shadows emerged from the factor's +house and made their way, cautiously and with difficulty, across the +sand to where a canoe had been run into the riffles of the beach. Marc +came first, carrying a sheet-iron stove with a collapsible funnel; then +his Uncle Edouard, shouldering a bundle consisting of a tent and a +couple of sacks of flour and pork; and lastly Professor Hooker with his +mackintosh and rifle, entirely unaware of the fact that his careful +guides had removed all the cartridges from his luggage lest he should +shoot too many caribou and so spoil the winter's food supply. It was +cold, almost frosty. In the black flood of the river the stars burned +with a chill, wavering light. Bennie put on his mackintosh with a +shiver. The two guides quietly piled the luggage in the centre of the +canoe, arranged a seat for their passenger, picked up their paddles, +shoved off, and took their places in bow and stern. + +No lights gleamed in the windows of Moisie. The lap of the ripples +against the birch side of the canoe, the gurgle of the water round the +paddle blades, and the rush of the bow as, after it had paused on the +withdraw, it leaped forward on the stroke, were the only sounds that +broke the deathlike silence of the semi-arctic night. Bennie struck a +match, and it flared red against the black water as he lit his pipe, but +he felt a great stirring within his little breast, a great courage to +dare, to do, for he was off, really off, on his great hunt, his search +for the secret that would remake the world. With the current whispering +against its sides the canoe swept in a wide circle to midstream. The +moon was now partially obscured behind the treetops. To the east a faint +glow made the horizon seem blacker than ever. Ahead the wide waste of +the dark river seemed like an engulfing chasm. Drowsiness enwrapped +Professor Hooker, a drowsiness intensified by the rythmic swinging of +the paddles and the pile of bedding against which he reclined. He closed +his eyes, content to be driven onward toward the region of his hopes, +content almost to fall asleep. + +"Hi!" suddenly whispered Marc St. Ange. "_Voila! Le pere des +marionettes!_" + +Bennie awoke with a start that almost upset the canoe. The blood rushed +to his face and sang in his ears. + +"Where?" he cried. "Where?" + +"_Au nord_," answered Marc. "_Mais il descend!_" + +Professor Hooker stared in the direction of Marc's uplifted paddle. Was +he deceived? Was the wish father to the thought? Or did he really see at +an immeasurable distance upon the horizon a quickly dying trail of +orange-yellow light? He rubbed his eyes--his heart beating wildly under +his sportsman's suiting. But the north was black beyond the coming dawn. + +Old Edouard grunted. + +"_Vous etes fou!_" he muttered to his nephew, and drove his paddle deep +into the water. + +Day broke with staccato emphasis. The sun swung up out of Europe and +burned down upon the canoe with a heat so equatorial in quality that +Bennie discarded both his mackintosh and his sporting jacket. All signs +of human life had disappeared from the distant banks of the river and +the bow of the canoe faced a gray-blue flood emerging from a wilderness +of scrubby trees. A few gulls flopped their way coast-ward, and at rare +intervals a salmon leaped and slashed the slow-moving surface into a +boiling circle; but for the rest their surroundings were as set, as +immobile, as the painted scenery of a stage, save where the current +swept the scattered promontories of the shore. But they moved steadily +north. So wearied was Bennie with the unaccustomed light and fresh air +that by ten o'clock he felt the day must be over, although the sun had +not yet reached the zenith. Unexpectedly Marc and Edouard turned the +canoe quietly into a shallow, and beached her on a spit of white sand. +In three minutes Edouard had a small fire snapping, and handed Bennie a +cup of tea. How wonderful it seemed--a genuine elixir! And then he felt +the stab of a mosquito, and putting up his hand found it blotched with +blood. And the black flies came also. Soon the professor was tramping up +and down, waving his handkerchief and clutching wildly at the air. Then +they pushed off again. + +The sun dropped westward as they turned bend after bend, disclosing ever +the same view beyond. Shadows of rocks and trees began to jut across the +eddies. A great heron, as big as an ostrich, or so he seemed, arose +awkwardly and flapped off, trailing yards of legs behind him. Then +Bennie put on first his jacket and then his mackintosh. He realized that +his hands were numb. The sun was now only a foot or so above the sky +line. + +This time it was Marc who grunted and thrust the canoe toward the +river's edge with a sideways push. It grounded on a belt of sand and +they dragged it ashore. Bennie, who had been looking forward to the +night with vivid apprehension, now discovered to his great happiness +that the chill was keeping away the black flies. Joyfully he assisted in +gathering dry sticks, driving tent pegs, and picking reindeer moss for +bedding. Then as darkness fell Edouard fried eggs and bacon, and with +their boots off and their stockinged feet toasting to the blaze the +three men ate as becomes men who have laboured fifteen hours in the open +air. They drank tin cups of scalding tea, a pint at a time, and found it +good; and they smoked their pipes with their backs propped against the +tree trunks and found it heaven. Then as the stars came out and the +woods behind them snapped with strange noises, Edouard took his pipe +from his mouth. + +"It's getting cold," said he. "The marionettes will dance to-night." + +Bennie heard him as if across a great, yawning gulf. Even the firelight +seemed hundreds of yards away. The little professor was "all in," and he +sat with his chin dropped again to his chest, until he heard Marc +exclaim: + +"_Voila! Elles dansent!_" + +He raised his eyes. Just across the black, silent sweep of the river +three giant prismatic searchlights were playing high toward the +polestar, such searchlights as the gods might be using in some monstrous +game. They wavered here and there, shifting and dodging, faded and +sprang up again, till Bennie, dizzy, closed his eyes. The lights were +still dancing in the north as he stumbled to his couch of moss. + +"_Toujour les marionettes!_" whispered Marc gently, as he might to a +child. "_Bon soir, monsieur._" + +The tent was hot and dazzling white above his head when low voices, +footsteps, and the clink of tin against iron aroused the professor from +a profound coma. The guides had already loaded the canoe and were +waiting for him. The sun was high. Apologetically he pulled on his +boots, and stepping to the sand dashed the icy water into his face. His +muscles groaned and rasped. His neck refused to respond to his desires +with its accustomed elasticity. But he drank his tea and downed his +scrambled eggs with an enthusiasm unknown in Cambridge, Massachusetts. +Marc gave him a hand into the canoe and they were off. The day had +begun. + +The river narrowed somewhat and the shores grew more rocky. At noon they +lunched on another sand-spit. At sunset they saw a caribou. Night came. +"Always the marionettes." Thus passed nine days--like a dream to Bennie; +and then came the first adventure. + +It was about four o'clock on the afternoon of the tenth day of their +trip up the Moisie when Marc suddenly stopped paddling and gazed +intently shoreward. After a moment he said something in a low tone to +Edouard, and they turned the canoe and drove it rapidly toward a small +cove half hidden by rocks. Bennie, straining his eyes, could see nothing +at first, but when the canoe was but ten yards from shore he caught +sight of the motionless figure of a man, lying on his face with his head +nearly in the water. Marc turned him over gently, but the limbs fell +limp, one leg at a grotesque angle to the knee. Bennie saw instantly +that it was broken. The Indian's face was white and drawn, no doubt with +pain. + +"_Il est mort!_" said Marc slowly, crossing himself. + +Edouard shrugged his shoulders and fetched a small flask of brandy from +the professor's sack. Forcing open the jaws, he poured a few drops into +the man's mouth. The Indian choked and opened his eyes. Edouard grunted. + +"_La jeunesse pense qu'elle sait tout!_" he remarked scornfully. + +Thus they found Nichicun, without whom Bennie might never have +accomplished the object of his quest. It took three days to nurse the +half-dead and altogether starved Montagnais back to life, but he +received the tenderest care. Marc shot a young caribou and gave him the +blood to drink, and made a ragout to put the flesh back on his bones. +Meanwhile the professor slept long hours on the moss and took a +much-needed rest; and by degrees they learned from Nichicun the story of +his misfortune--the story that forms a part of the chronicle of the +expedition, which can be read at the Smithsonian Institution. + +He was a Montagnais, he said, with a line of traps to the northeast of +the Height of Land, and last winter he had had very bad luck indeed. +There had been less and less in his traps and he had seen no caribou. So +he had taken his wife, who was sick, and had gone over into the Nascopee +country for food, and there his wife had died. He had made up his mind +very late in the season to come down to Moisie and make his mass and get +a new wife, and start a fresh line of traps in the autumn. All the other +Montagnais had descended the river in their canoes long before, so he +was alone. His provisions had given out and he saw no caribou. He began +to think he would surely starve to death. And then one evening, on the +point just above their present camp, he had seen a caribou and shot it, +but he had been too weak to take good aim and had only broken its +shoulder. It lay kicking among the boulders, pushing itself along by its +hind legs, and he had feared that it would escape. In his haste to reach +it he had slipped on a wet rock and fallen and broken his leg. In spite +of the pain he had crawled on, and then had taken place a wild, terrible +fight for life between the dying man and the dying beast. + +He could not remember all that had occurred--he had been kicked, gored, +and bitten; but finally he had got a grip on its throat and slashed it +with his knife. Then, lying there on the ground beside it, he drank its +blood and cut off the raw flesh in strips for food. Finally one day he +had crawled to the river for water and had fainted. + +The professor and his guides made for the Indian a hut of rocks and +bark, and threw a great pile of moss into the corner of it for him to +lie on. They carved a splint for his leg and bound it up, and cut a huge +heap of firewood for him, smoking caribou meat and hanging it up in the +hut. Somebody would come up river and find him, or if not, the three men +would pick him up on their return. For this was right and the law of the +woods. But never a word of particular interest to Prof. Bennie Hooker +did Nichicun speak until the night before their departure, although the +reason and manner of his speaking were natural enough. It happened as +follows: but first it should be said that the Nascopees are an ignorant +and barbarous tribe, dirty and treacherous, upon whom the Montagnais +look down with contempt and scorn. They do not even wear civilized +clothes, and their ways are not the ways of _les bons sauvages_. They +have no priests; they do not come to the coast; and the Montagnais will +not mingle with them. Thus it bespoke the hunger of Nichicun that he was +willing to go into their country. + +As he sat round the fire with Marc and Edouard on that last night, +Nichicun spoke his mind of the Nascopees, and Marc translated freely for +Bennie's edification. + +No, the injured Montagnais told them, the Nascopees were not nice; they +were dirty. They ate decayed food and they never went to mass. Moreover, +they were half-witted. While he was there they were all planning to +migrate for the most absurd reason--what do you suppose? Magic! They +claimed the end of the world was coming! Of course it was coming some +time. But they said now, right away. But why? Because the marionettes +were dancing so much. And they had seen the Father of the Marionettes +floating in the sky and making thunder! Fools! But the strangest thing +of all, they said they could hunt no longer, for they were afraid to +cross something--an iron serpent that stung with fire if you touched it, +and killed you! What foolishness! An iron serpent! But he had asked them +and they had sworn on the holy cross that it was true. + +Bennie listened with a chill creeping up his spine. But it would never +do to hint what this disclosure meant to him. Between puffs of his pipe +he asked casual, careless questions of Nichicun. These Nascopees, for +instance, how far off might their land be? And where did they assert +this extraordinary serpent of iron to be? Were there rivers in the +Nascopee country? Did white men ever go there? All these things the +wounded Montagnais told him. It appeared, moreover, that the Rassini +River was near the Nascopee territory, and that it flowed into the +Moisie only seven miles above the camp. All that night the marionettes +danced in Bennie's brain. + +Next morning they propped Nichicun on his bed of moss, laid a rifle and +a box of matches beside him, and bade him farewell. At the mouth of the +Rassini River Prof. Bennie Hooker held up his hand and announced that he +was going to the Nascopee country. The canoe halted abruptly. Old +Edouard declared that they had been engaged only to go to the big cache, +and that their present trip was merely by way of a little excursion to +see the river. They had no supplies for such a journey, no proper amount +of ammunition. No, they would deposit the professor on the nearest +sandbar if he wished, but they were going back. + +Bennie arose unsteadily in the canoe and dug into his pocket, producing +a roll of gold coin. Two hundred and fifty dollars he promised them if +they would take him to the nearest tribe of Nascopees; five hundred if +they could find the Iron Serpent. + +"_Bien!_" exclaimed both Indians without a moment's hesitation, and the +canoe plunged forward up the Rassini. + +Once more a dreamlike succession of brilliant, frosty days; once more +the star-studded sky in which always the marionettes danced. And then at +last the great falls of the Rassini, beyond which no white man had gone. +They hid the canoe in the bushes and placed beneath it the iron stove +and half their supply of food. Then they plunged into the brush, +eastward. Bennie had never known such grueling work and heartbreaking +fatigue; and the clouds of flies pursued them venomously and with +unrelenting persistence. At first they had to cut their way through +acres of brush, and then the land rose and they saw before them miles of +swamp and barren land dotted with dwarf trees and lichen-grown rocks. +Here it was easier and they made better time; but the professor's legs +ached and his rifle wore a red bruise on his shoulder. And then after +five days of torment they came upon the Iron Rail. It ran in almost a +direct line from northwest to southwest, with hardly a waver, straight +over the barrens and through the forests of scrub, with a five-foot +clearing upon either side. At intervals it was elevated to a height of +eight or ten inches upon insulated iron braces. Both Marc and Edouard +stared at in wonder, while Bennie made them a little speech. + +It was, he said, a thing called a "monorail," made by a man who +possessed strange secrets concerning the earth and the properties of +matter. That man lived over the Height of Land toward Ungava. He was a +good man and would not harm other good men. But he was a great +magician--if you believed in magic. On the rail undoubtedly he ran +something called a gyroscopic engine, and carried his stores and +machinery into the wilderness. The Nascopees were not such fools after +all, for here was the something they feared to cross--the iron serpent +that bit and killed. Let them watch while he made it bite. He allowed +his rifle to fall against the rail, and instantly a shower of blue +sparks flashed from it as the current leaped into the earth. + +Bennie counted out twenty-five golden eagles and handed them to Edouard. +If they followed the rail to its source he would, he promised, on their +return to civilization give them as much again. Without more ado the +Indians lifted their packs and swung off to the northwest along the line +of the rail. The stock of Prof. Bennie Hooker had risen in their +estimation. On they ploughed across the barrens, through swamps, over +the quaking muskeg, into the patches of scrub growth where the short +branches slapped their faces, but always they kept in sight of the rail. + + * * * * * + +The extraordinary announcement, transmitted from various European news +agencies, that an attempt had been made by the general commanding the +First Artillery Division of the German Army of the Meuse to violate the +armistice, had caused a profound sensation, particularly as the attempt +to destroy Paris had been prevented only by the sudden appearance of the +same mysterious Flying Ring that had shortly before caused the +destruction of the Atlas Mountains and the flooding of the Sahara Desert +by the Mediterranean Sea. + +The advent of the Flying Ring on this second occasion had been noted by +several hundred thousand persons, both soldiers and non-combatants. At +about the hour of midnight, as if to observe whether the warring nations +intended sincerely to live up to their agreement and bring about an +actual cessation of hostilities, the Ring had appeared out of the north +and, floating through the sky, had followed the lines of the +belligerents from Brussels to Verdun and southward. The blinding yellow +light that it had projected toward the earth had roused the soldiers +sleeping in their intrenchments and caused great consternation all along +the line of fortifications, as it was universally supposed that the +director of its flight intended to annihilate the combined armies of +France, England, Germany, and Belgium. But the Ring had sailed +peacefully along, three thousand feet aloft, deluging the countryside +with its dazzling light, sending its beams into the casemates of the +huge fortresses of the Rhine and the outer line of the French +fortifications, searching the redoubts and trenches, but doing no harm +to the sleeping armies that lay beneath it; until at last the silence of +the night had been broken by the thunder of "Thanatos," and in the +twinkling of an eye the Lavender Ray had descended, to turn the village +of Champaubert into the smoking crater of a dying volcano. The entire +division of artillery had been annihilated, with the exception of a few +stragglers, and of the Relay Gun naught remained but a distorted puddle +of steel and iron. + +Long before the news of the horrible retribution visited by the master +of the Ring upon Treitschke, the major-general of artillery, and the +inventor, Von Heckmann, had reached the United States, Bill Hood, +sitting in the wireless receiving station of the Naval Observatory at +Georgetown, had received through the ether a message from his mysterious +correspondent in the north that sent him hurrying to the White House. +Pax had called the Naval Observatory and had transmitted the following +ultimatum, repeating it, as was his custom, three times: + + "_To the President of the United States and to All Mankind:_ + + "I have put the nations to the test and found them wanting. The + solemn treaty entered into by the ambassadors of the belligerent + nations at Washington has been violated. My attempt by harmless + means to compel the cessation of hostilities and the abolition of + war has failed. I cannot trust the nations of the earth. Their + selfishness, their bloodthirstiness, and greed, will inevitably + prevent their fulfilling their agreements with me or keeping the + terms of their treaties with one another, which they regard, as + they themselves declare, merely as 'scraps of paper.' The time has + come for me to compel peace. I am the dictator of human destiny and + my will is law. War shall cease. On the 10th day of September I + shall shift the axis of the earth until the North Pole shall be in + the region of Strassburg and the South Pole in New Zealand. The + habitable zone of the earth will be hereafter in South Africa, + South and Central America, and regions now unfrequented by man. The + nations must migrate and a new life in which war is unknown must + begin upon the globe. This is my last message to the human race. + + "PAX." + +The conference of ambassadors summoned by the President to the White +House that afternoon exhibited a character in striking contrast with the +first, at which Von Koenitz and the ambassadors from France, Russia, and +England had had their memorable disagreement. It was a serious, +apprehensive, and subdued group of gentlemen that gathered round the +great mahogany table in the Cabinet chamber to debate what course of +action the nations should pursue to avert the impending calamity to +mankind. For that Pax could shift the axis of the earth, or blow the +globe clean out of its orbit into space, if he chose to do so, no one +doubted any longer. + +And first it fell as the task of the ambassador representing the +Imperial German Commissioners to assure his distinguished colleagues +that his nation disavowed and denied all responsibility for the conduct +of General Treitschke in bombarding Paris after the hour set for the +armistice. It was unjust and contrary to the dictates of reason, he +argued, to hold the government of a nation comprising sixty-five +millions of human beings and five millions of armed men accountable for +the actions of a single individual. He spoke passionately, eloquently, +persuasively, and at the conclusion of his speech the ambassadors +present were forced to acknowledge that what he said was true, and to +accept without reservation his plausible assurances that the Imperial +German Commissioners had no thought but to cooperate with the other +governments in bringing about a lasting peace such as Pax demanded. + +But the immediate question was, had not the time for this gone by? Was +it not too late to convince the master of the Flying Ring that his +orders would be obeyed? Could anything be done to avert the calamity he +threatened to bring upon the earth--to prevent the conversion of Europe +into a barren waste of ice fields? For Pax had announced that he had +spoken for the last time and that the fate of Europe was sealed. All the +ambassadors agreed that a general European immigration was practically +impossible; and as a last resort it was finally decided to transmit to +Pax, through the Georgetown station, a wireless message signed by all +the ambassadors of the belligerent nations, solemnly agreeing within one +week to disband their armies and to destroy all their munitions and +implements of war. This message was delivered to Hood, with instructions +for its immediate delivery. All that afternoon and evening the operator +sat in the observatory, calling over and over again the three letters +that marked mankind's only communication with the controller of its +destiny: + + "PAX--PAX--PAX!" + +But no answer came. For long, weary hours Hood waited, his ears glued to +the receivers. An impenetrable silence surrounded the master of the +Ring. Pax had spoken. He would say no more. Late that night Hood +reluctantly returned to the White House and informed the President that +he was unable to deliver the message of the nations. + +And meantime Prof. Bennie Hooker, with Marc and Edouard, struggled +across the wilderness of Labrador, following the Iron Rail that led to +the hiding-place of the master of the world. + + * * * * * + +The terrible fate of the German expeditionary force is too well known to +require comment. As has been already told, the _Sea Fox_ had sailed from +Amsterdam twelve days after the conference in the War Office at Mainz +between General von Helmuth and Professor von Schwenitz. Once north of +the Orkneys it had encountered fair weather, and it had reached Hamilton +Inlet in ten days without mishap, and with the men and animals in the +best of condition. At Rigolet the men had disembarked and loaded their +howitzers, mules, and supplies upon the flat-bottomed barges brought +with them for that purpose. Thirty French and Indian guides had been +engaged, and five days later the expedition, towed by the powerful motor +launches, had started up the river toward the chain of lakes lying +northwest toward Ungava. Every one was in the best of spirits and +everything moved with customary German precision like clockwork. Nothing +had been forgotten, not even the pungent invention of a Berlin chemist +to discourage mosquitoes. Without labour, without anxiety, the fourteen +barges bored through the swift currents and at last reached a great lake +that lay like a silver mirror for miles about them. The moon rose and +turned the boats into weird shapes as they ploughed through the gray +mists--a strange and terrible sight for the Nascopees lurking in the +underbrush along the shore. And while the men smoked and sang "Die Wacht +am Rhein," listening to the trill of the ripples against the bows, the +foremost motorboat grounded. + +The momentum of the barge immediately following could not be checked, +and she in turn drove into what seemed to be a mud bank. At about the +same instant the other barges struck bottom. Intense excitement and +confusion prevailed among the members of the expedition, since they were +almost out of sight of land and the draft of the motorboats was only +nineteen inches. But no efforts could move the barges from where they +were. All night long the propellers churned the gleaming water of the +lake to foam, but without result. Each and every barge and boat was hard +and fast aground, and when the gray daylight came stealing across the +lake there was no lake to be seen, only a reeking marsh, covered for +miles with a welter of green slime and decaying vegetable matter across +which it would seem no human being or animal could flounder. As far as +the eye could reach lay only a blackish ooze. And with the sun came +millions of mosquitoes and flies, and drove the men and mules frantic +with their stings. + +Only one man, Ludwig Helmer, a gun driver from Potsdam, survived. Half +mad with the flies and nearly naked, he found his way somehow across the +quaking bog, after all his comrades had died of thirst, and reached a +tribe of Nascopees, who took him to the coast. A great explosion, they +told him, had torn the River Nascopee from its bed and diverted its +course. The lakes that it fed had all dried up. + + * * * * * + +Blinded by perspiration, sweltering under the heavy burden of their +outfit, goaded almost to frenzy by the black flies and mosquitoes, +Hooker and Marc and Edouard staggered through the brush, following the +monorail. They had already reached the summit of the Height of Land and +where now working down the northern slope in the direction of Ungava. +The land was barren beyond the imagination of the unimaginative Bennie. +Small dwarfed trees struggled for a footing amid the lichen-covered +outcroppings and sun-dried moss of the hollows. The slightest rise +showed mile upon mile of great waste undulating interminably in every +direction. The heat shimmering off the rocks was almost suffocating. At +noon on September 10th they threw themselves into the shade of a narrow +ledge, boiled some tea, and smoked their pipes, wildly fanning the air +to drive away the swarms of insects that attacked them. + +Hooker was half drunk from lack of sleep and water. Already once or +twice he had caught himself wandering when talking to Marc and Edouard. +The whole thing was like a horrible, disgusting nightmare. And then he +suddenly became aware that the two Indians were staring intently through +the clouds of mosquitoes over the tree tops to the eastward. Through the +sweat that trickled into his eyes he tried to make out what they could +see. But he could discern nothing except mosquitoes. And then he thought +he saw a mosquito larger than all the others. He waved at it, but it +remained where it was. A slight breeze momentarily wafted the swarm +away, and he still saw the big mosquito hovering over the horizon. Then +he heard Marc cry out: + +"_Quelque chose vol en l'air!_" + +He rubbed the moisture out of his eyes and stared at the mosquito, which +was growing bigger every minute. With the velocity of a projectile, this +monstrous insect, or whatever it was, came sweeping up behind them from +the Height of Land, soaring into the zenith in a great parabola, until +with a shiver of excitement Bennie recognized that it was the Flying +Ring. + +"It's him," he chattered emphatically, if ungrammatically. + +Marc and Edouard nodded. + +"_Oui, oui!_" they cried in unison. "_C'est celui que vous cherchez!_" + +"_Il retourne chez lui_," said Marc. + +And then Bennie, without offering any explanation, found himself dancing +up and down upon the rocks in the dizzying sun, waving his hat and +shouting to the Father of the Marionettes. What he shouted he never +knew. And Marc and Edouard both shouted, too. But the master of the Ring +heard them not, or if he heard he paid them no attention. Nearer and +nearer came the Ring, until Bennie could see the gleaming cylinder of +its great steel circle. At a distance of about two miles it swept +through the air over a low ridge, and settled toward the earth in the +direction of Ungava. + +"He only goes ten mile maybe," announced Marc confidently. "_Un petit +bout de chemin._ We get there to-night." + +On they struggled beside the Rail, but now hope ran high. Bennie sang +and whistled, unmindful of the mosquitoes and black flies that renewed +their attacks with unremitting ferocity. The sun lowered itself into the +pine trees, shooting dazzling shafts through the low branches, and then +sank in a welter of crimson-yellow light. The sky turned gray in the +east; faint stars twinkled through the quivering waves that still shook +from the overheated rocks. It turned cold and the mosquitoes departed. +Hugging the Rail, they staggered on, now over shaking muskeg, now +through thickets of tangled brush, now on great ledges of barren rock, +and then across caribou barrens knee-deep in dry and crackling moss. +Darkness fell and prudence dictated that they should make camp. But in +their excitement they trudged on, until presently a pale glow behind the +dwarfed trees showed that the moon was rising. They boiled the water, +made tea, and cooked some biscuits. Soon they could see to pursue their +way. + +"'Most there now," encouraged Marc. + +Presently, instead of descending, they found the land was rising again, +and forcing their way through the undergrowth they struggled up a rocky +hillside, perhaps three hundred feet in height. Marc was in the lead, +with Bennie a few feet behind him. As they reached the crest the Indian +turned and pointed to something in front of him that Bennie was unable +to distinguish. + +"_Nous sommes arrivees_," he announced. + +With his heart thumping from the exertion of the climb, Bennie crawled +up beside his guide and found himself confronted by a strong barbed-wire +entanglement affixed to iron stanchions firmly imbedded in the rocks. +They were on the top of a ridge that dropped away abruptly at their feet +into a valley, perhaps a mile in width, terminating on the other side in +perpendicular cliffs, estimated by Bennie to be about eight hundred or a +thousand feet in height. Although the entanglement was by no means +impassable, it was a distinct obstacle and one they preferred to tackle +by daylight. Moreover, it indicated that their company was undesired. +They were in the presence of an unknown quantity, the master of the +Flying Ring. Whether he was a malign or a benevolent influence, this +Father of the Marionettes, they could not tell. + +With his back propped against a small spruce Bennie focused his glasses +upon dim shapes barely discernible in the midst of the valley. He was +thrilled by a deep excitement, a strange fear. What would he see? What +mysteries would those vague forms disclose? The shadows cast by the +cliffs and a light mist gathering in the low ground made it difficult to +see; and then, even as he looked, the moon rose higher and shone through +something in the middle of the valley that looked like a tall, grisly +skeleton. It seemed to have legs and arms, an odd mushroom-shaped head, +and endless ribs. Below and at its feet were other and vaguer +shapes--flat domes or cupolas, bombproofs perhaps, buildings of some +sort--Pax's home beyond peradventure. + +As he looked through the glasses at the skeleton-like tower Bennie had +an extraordinary feeling of having seen it all before somewhere. As in a +long-forgotten dream he remembered Tesla's tower near Smithtown, on Long +Island. And this was Tesla's tower, naught else! It is a strange thing, +how at great crises of our lives come feelings of anticipatory +knowledge. There is, indeed, nothing new under the sun; else had Bennie +been more afraid. As it was, he saw only Tesla's Smithtown tower with +its head like a young mushroom. And at the same time there flashed into +his memory: "Childe Harold to the Dark Tower Came." Over and over he +repeated it mechanically, feeling that he might be one of those of whom +the poet had sung. Yet he had not read the lines for years: + + _Burningly it came on me all at once, + This was the place!... + What in the midst lay but the Tower itself?_ + +His eyes searched the shadows round the base of the tower, for his ears +had already caught a faint, almost inaudible throbbing that seemed to +grow from moment to moment. There certainly was a dull vibration in the +air, a vibration like the distant hum of machinery. Suddenly old Edouard +touched Bennie upon the shoulder. + +"_Regardez!_" he whispered. + +Some transformation was happening in the hood of the tower. From a black +opaque object it began to turn a dull red and to diffuse a subdued glow, +while the hum turned into a distinct whir. + +Bennie became almost hysterical with excitement. + +Soon the hood of the tower had turned white and the glow had increased +until the whole valley was lit up with a suffused and gentle light. The +Ring could be distinctly seen about half a mile away, resting upon a +huge circular support. + +"_C'est le feu!_" grunted Marc. "_C'est ainsi que l'on fait danser les +marionettes!_" + +There was no doubt that the hood of the tower was in fact white hot, for +the perpendicular cliffs of the mountain across the valley sharply +reflected the light that it disseminated. The humming whir of the great +alternator rose gradually into a scream like the outcry of some angry +thing. And then unexpectedly a shaft of pale lavender light shot out +from the glowing hood and lost itself in the blackness of the midnight +sky. Now appeared a wonderful and beautiful spectacle: immediately above +the point where the rays disappeared into the ether hundreds of points +of yellow fire suddenly sprang into being in the sky, darting hither and +thither like fireflies, some moving slowly and others with such speed +they appeared as even, luminous lines. + +"_Les marionettes! Les marionettes!_" Marc cried trembling. + +"Not at all! Not at all! They are meteorites!" answered Bennie, entirely +engrossed in the scientific phase of the matter and forgetting that he +did not speak the other's language. "Space is jammed full of meteoric +dust. The larger particles, which strike our atmosphere and which ignite +by friction, form shooting stars. The Ray--the Lavender Ray--reaching +out into the most distant regions of space meets them in countless +numbers and disintegrates them, surrounding them with glowing +atmospheres. By George, though, if he starts in playing the Ray upon +that cliff we've got to stand from under! Look here, boys," he shouted, +"stuff something in your ears." He seized his handkerchief, tore it +apart, and, making two plugs, thrust them into the openings of his ears +as far as the drums. The others in wonderment followed his example. + +"He's going to rock the earth!" cried Bennie Hooker. "He's going to rock +the earth again!" + +Slowly the Lavender Ray swung through the ether, followed by its +millions of meteorites, dipping downward toward the northern side of the +valley and sinking ever lower and lower toward the cliff. Bennie threw +himself flat on his stomach upon the ridge, pressing his hands to his +ears, and the others, feeling that something terrible was going to +happen, followed his example. Nearer and nearer toward the ridge dropped +the Ray. Bennie held his breath. Another instant and there came a +blinding splash of yellow light, a crash like thunder, and a roar that +seemed to tear the mountain from its base. The earth shook. Into the +zenith sprang a flame of incandescent vapour a mile in height. The +tumult increased. Vivid blue flashes of lightning shot out from the spot +upon which the Ray played. The air was filled with thunderings, and the +ground beneath them rose and fell and swung from side to side. Then came +a mighty wind, nay, a cyclone, and gravel and broken branches fell upon +them, and suffocating clouds of dust filled their eyes and shut out from +time to time what was occurring in the valley. The face of the cliff +glowed like the interior of a furnace, and the blazing yellow blast of +glowing helium shot over their heads and off into space, making the +night sky light as day. + +For a moment they all lay stunned and sightless. Then the discharge +appeared to diminish both in volume and in intensity. The air cleared +somewhat and the ground no longer trembled. The burst of flame slowly +subsided, like a fountain that is being gradually turned off. Either the +Ring man wasn't going to rock the earth or he had lost control of his +machinery. + +Something was clearly going wrong. Showers of sparks fell from the hood +and occasionally huge glowing masses of molten metal dropped from it. +And now the Lavender Ray began slowly to sweep down the face of the +cliff; and the yellow blast of helium gradually faded away until it was +scarcely visible. The roar of the alternator died down, first to a hum +and then to a purr. + +"Something's busted," thought Bennie, "and he's shut it off." + +The Ray had now reached the bottom of the cliff and was sweeping across +the ground toward the base of the tower, its path being marked by a +small travelling volcano that hurled its smoke and steam high into the +air. It was evident to Bennie that the hood of the tower was slowly +turning over, and that the now fast-fading Ray would presently play upon +its base and the adjacent cupola in which the master of the Ring was +probably attempting to control his recalcitrant machinery. + +And then Bennie lost consciousness. + + * * * * * + +A splash of rain. He awoke, and found himself lying by the barbed-wire +fence in the graying light of dawn. His muscles were stiff and sore, but +he felt a strange sense of exhilaration. A mist was driving across the +valley and enshrouding the scene of the night's debacle. Through the +rain gusts he could see, still standing, the wreck of the tower, with a +fragment of melted inductor drooping from its apex--and a long way off +the Ring. The base of the tower and its surroundings were lost in mist. +He crawled to his knees and looked about him for Marc and Edouard, but +they had disappeared. His field glasses lay beside him, and he picked +them up and raised himself to his feet. Like stout Cortes, silent upon +his peak in Darien, he surveyed the Pacific of his dreams. For the Ring +was still there! Pax might be annihilated, his machinery destroyed, but +the secret remained--and it was his, Bennie Hooker's, of Appian Way, +Cambridge, Massachusetts! In his excitement, in getting over the fence +he tore a jagged hole in what was left of his sporting suit, but in a +moment more he was scrambling down the ridge into the ravine. + +He found it no easy task to climb down the jagged face of the cliff, but +twenty minutes of stiff work landed him in the valley and within a +thousand yards of the stark remains of the tower. Between where he stood +and the devastation caused by the culminating explosion of the night +before, the surface of the earth showed the customary ledges of barren +rock, the scraggy scattering of firs, and stretches of moss with which +he had become so familiar. Behind him the monorail, springing into space +from the crest of the hill, ended in the dangling wreckage of a trestle +which evidently had terminated in a station, now vanished, near the +tower. From his point of observation little of the results of the +upheaval was noticeable except the debris, which lay in a film of +shattered rock and gravel over the surface of the ground, but as he ran +toward the tower the damage caused by the Ray quickly became apparent. + +At the distance of two hundred yards from the base he paused astounded. +Why anything of the tower remained at all was a mystery, explicable only +by reason of the skeleton-like character of its construction. All about +it the surface had been rent as by an earthquake, and save for a +fragment of the dome or bombproof all trace of buildings had +disappeared. A glistening lake of leperous-like molten lead lay in the +centre of the crater, strangely iridescent. A broad path of destruction, +fifty yards or so in width, led from the scene of the disruption to the +precipice against which the Ray had played. The face of the cliff itself +seemed covered with a white coating or powder which gave it a ghostly +sheen. Moreover, the rain had turned to snow and already the entire +aspect of the valley had changed. + +Bennie stood wonderingly on the edge of this inferno. He was cold, +famished, horror-stricken. Like a flash in a pan the mechanism which had +rocked the earth and dislocated its axis had blown out; and there was +now nothing left to tell the story, for its inventor had flashed out +with it into eternity. At his very feet a conscious human being, only +twelve short hours before, had by virtue of his stupendous brain been +able to generate and control a force capable of destroying the planet +itself, and now----! He was gone! It was all gone! Unless somewhere hard +by was hovering amid the whirling snowflakes that which might be his +soul. But Pax would send no more messages! Bennie's journey had gone for +naught. He had arrived just too late to talk it all over with his +fellow-scientist, and discuss those little improvements on Hiroshito's +theory. Pax was dead! + +He sat down wearily, noticing for the first time that his ears pained +him. In his depression and excitement he had totally forgotten the Ring. +He wondered how he was ever going to get back to Cambridge. And then as +he raised his hand to adjust his Glengarry he saw it awaiting +him--unscathed. Far to the westward it rested snugly in its gigantic +nest of crossbeams, like the head of some colossal decapitated Chinese +mandarin. With an involuntary shout he started running down the valley, +heedless of his steps. Nearer and higher loomed the steel trestlework +upon which rested the giant engine. Panting, he blindly stumbled on, +mindful only of the momentous fact that Pax's secret was not lost. + +Fifty feet above the ground, supported upon a cylindrical trestle of +steel girders, rested the body of the car, constructed of aluminum +plates in the form of an anchor ring some seventy-five feet in diameter, +while over the circular structure of the Ring itself rose a skeleton +tower like a tripod, carrying at its summit a huge metal device shaped +like a thimble, the open mouth of which pointed downward through the +open centre of the machine. Obviously this must be the tractor or +radiant engine. There, too, swung far out from the side of the ring on a +framework of steel, was the thermic inductor which had played the +disintegrating Ray upon the Atlas Mountains and the great cannon of Von +Heckmann. The whole affair resembled nothing which he had ever conceived +of either in the air, the earth, or the waters under the earth, the +bizarre invention of a superhuman mind. It seemed as firmly anchored and +as immovable as the Eiffel Tower, and yet Bennie knew that the thing +could lift itself into the air and sail off like a ball of thistledown +before a breeze. He knew that it could do it, for he had seen it with +his own eyes. + +A few steps more brought him into the centre of the circle of steel +girders which supported the landing stage. Here the surface of the earth +at his feet had been completely denuded and the underlying rock exposed, +evidently by some artificial action, the downward blast of gas from the +tractor. Even the rock itself had been seared by the discharge; little +furrows worn smooth as if by a mountain torrent radiating in all +directions from the central point. More than anything it reminded Bennie +of the surface of a meteorite, polished and scarred by its rush through +the atmosphere. He paused, filled with a kind of awe. The most wonderful +engine of all time waited his inspection. The great secret was his +alone. The inventor and his associates had been wiped out of existence +in a flash, and the Flying Ring was his by every right of treasure +trove. In the heart of the Labrador wilderness Prof. Benjamin Hooker of +Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave an exultant shout, threw off his coat, +and swarmed up the steel ladder leading to the landing stage. + +He had ascended about halfway when a voice echoed among the girders. A +red face was peering down at him over the edge of the platform. + +"Hello!" said the face. "I'm all right, I guess." + +Bennie gripped tight hold of the ladder, stiff with fear. He thought +first of jumping down, changed his mind, and, shutting his eyes, +continued automatically climbing up the ladder. + +Then a hand gripped him under the arm and gave him a lift on to the +level floor of the platform. He steadied himself and opened his eyes. +Before him stood a man in blue overalls, under whose forehead, burned +bright red by the Labrador sun, a pair of blue eyes looked out vaguely. +The man appeared to be waiting for the visitor to make the next move. +"Good morning," said Bennie, sparring for time. "Well"--he +hesitated--"where were you when it happened?" + +The man looked at him stupidly. "What?" he mumbled. "I--I don't seem to +remember. You see--I was in--the condenser room building up the +charge--for to-morrow--I mean to-day--sixty thousand volts at the +terminals, and the fluid clearing up. I guess I looked out of the window +a minute--to see--the fireworks--and then--somehow--I was out on the +platform." He shaded his eyes and looked off down the valley at the +half-shattered, wrecked tower. "The wind and the smoke!" he muttered. +"The wind and the smoke--and the dust in my eyes--and now it's all gone +to hell! But I guess everything's all right now, if you want to fly." He +touched his cap automatically. "We can start whenever you are ready, +sir. You see I thought you were gone, too! That would have been a mess! +I'm sure you can handle the balancer without Perkins. Poor old Perk! And +Hoskins--and the others. All gone, by God! All wiped out! Only me and +you left, sir!" He laughed hysterically. + +"Bats in his belfry!" thought Bennie. "Something hit him!" + +Slowly it came over him that the half-stunned creature thought that he, +Bennie Hooker, was Pax, the Master of the World! + +He took the fellow by the arm. "Come on inside," he said. A plan had +already formulated itself in his brain. Even as he was the man might be +able to go through his customary duties in handling the Ring. It was not +impossible. He had heard of such things, and the thought of the long +marches over the frozen barrens and the perilous canoe trip down the +coast, contrasted with a swift rush for an hour or two through the +sunlit air, gave the professor the courage which might not have availed +him otherwise. At the top of a short ladder a trapdoor opened inward, +and Bennie found himself in a small compartment scarcely large enough to +turn around in, from which a second door opened into the body of the +Ring proper. + +"It's all right--to-day," said the man hesitatingly. "I fixed--the +air-lock--yesterday, sir. The leak--was here--at the hinge--but it's +quite tight--now." He pointed at the door. + +"Good," remarked Bennie. "I'll look around and see how things are." + +This seemed to him to be eminently safe--and allowing for a program of +investigation absolutely essential at the moment. Once he could master +the secret of the Ring and be sure that the part of the fellow's brain +which controlled the performance of his customary duties had not been +injured by the shock of the night before, it might be possible to carry +out the daring project which had suggested itself. + +Passing through the inner door of the air-lock he entered the chart room +of the Ring, followed stumblingly by his companion. It was warm and +cozy; the first warmth Hooker had experienced for nearly a month. It +made him feel faint, and he dropped into an armchair and pulled off his +Glengarry. The survivor of the explosion, standing awkwardly at his +side, fumbled with his cap. Ever and anon he rubbed his head. + +Bennie sank back into the cushions and looked about him. On the opposite +wall hung a map of the world on Mercator's Projection, and from a spot +in Northern Labrador red lines radiated in all directions, which formed +great curved loops, returning to the starting-point. + +"The flights of the Ring," thought Bennie. "There's the one where they +busted the Atlas Mountains," following with his eyes the crimson thread +which ran diagonally across the Atlantic, traversed Spain and the +Mediterranean, and circling in a narrow loop over the coast of Northern +Africa turned back into its original track. Visions came to him of +guiding the car for an afternoon jaunt across the Sahara, the gloomy +forests of the Congo, into the Antarctic, and thence home in time for +afternoon tea, via the Easter Islands, Hawaii, and Alaska. But why stop +there? What was to prevent a trip to the moon? Or Mars? Or for that +matter into the unknown realms outside the solar system--the fourth +dimension, perhaps--or even the fifth dimension---- + +"Excuse me," said the machinist suddenly, "I just forgot--whether you +take--cigars or cigarettes. You see I only acted as--table +orderly--once--when Smith had that sprain." His hands moved uncertainly +on the shelves, beyond the map. The heart of Professor Hooker leaped. + +"Cigars!" he almost shouted. + +The man found a box of Havanas and struck a match. + +The bliss of it! And if there was tobacco there must be food and drink +as well. He began to feel strangely exhilarated. But how to handle the +man beside him? Pax would certainly never ask the questions that he +wished to ask. He smoked rapidly, thinking hard. Of course he might +pretend that he, too, had forgotten things. And at first this seemed to +be the only way out of the difficulty. Then he had an inspiration. + +"Look here," he remarked, rather severely. "Something's happened to you. +You say you've forgotten what occurred yesterday? How do I know but you +have forgotten everything you ever knew? You remember your name?" + +"My name, sir?" The man laughed in a foolish fashion. "Why--of course I +remember--my name. I wouldn't--be likely--to forget--that: +Atterbury--I'm Atterbury--electrician of the _Chimaera_." And he drew +himself up. + +"That's all right," said Bennie, "but what were we doing yesterday? What +is the very last thing that you can go back to?" + +The man wrinkled his forehead. "The last thing? Why, sir, you told us +you were going--to turn over the pole a bit--and freeze up Europe. I was +up here--loading the condenser--when you cut me off from the alternator. +I opened the switch--and put on the electrometer to see--if we had +enough. Next--everything was clouded, and I went--over to the window to +see--what was going on." + +"Yes," commented Bennie approvingly, "all right so far. What happened +then?" + +"Why, after that, sir, after that, there was the Ray of course, and +er--I don't seem to remember--oh, yes, a short circuit--and I ran--out +on the platform--forgot all about the danger! After that, everything's +confused. It's like a dream. Your coming up--the ladder--seemed--to wake +me up." The machinist smiled sheepishly. + +The plan was working well. Professor Hooker was learning things fast. + +"Do you think that the two of us can fly the _Chimaera_ south again?" he +asked, inspecting the map. + +"Why not?" answered Atterbury. "The balancer is working--better +now--and--doesn't take--much attention--and you can lay the course--and +manage--the landing. I was going to put a fresh uranium cylinder in the +tractor this morning--but I--forgot." + +"There you go, forgetting again!" growled Bennie, realizing that his +only excuse for asking questions hung on this fiction. And there were +many, many more questions that he must ask before he would be able to +fly. "You don't seem quite right in your coco this morning, Atterbury," +he said. "I think we'll look things over a bit--the condenser first." + +"Very well, sir." Atterbury turned and groped his way through a doorway, +and they passed first into what appeared to be a storage-battery room. +Huge glass tanks filled with amber-coloured fluid, in which numerous +parallel plates were supported, lined the walls from floor to ceiling. + +An ammeter on the wall caught Bennie's attention. "Weston Direct Reading +A. C. Ammeter," he read on the dial. Alternate current! What were they +doing with an alternating current in the storage-battery room? His eyes +followed the wires along the wall. Yes, they ran to the terminals of the +battery. It dawned upon him that there might be something here undreamed +of in electrical engineering--a storage battery for an alternating +current! + +The electrician closed a row of switches, brought the two polished brass +spheres of the discharger within striking distance, and instantly a +blinding current of sparks roared between the terminals. He had been +right. This battery not only was charged by an alternating current, but +delivered one of high potential. He peered into the cells, racking his +brain for an explanation. + +"Atterbury," said he meditatively, "did I ever tell you why they do +that?" + +"Yes," answered the man. "You--told me--once. The two metals--in the +electrolyte--come down--on the plates--in alternate films--as--the +current changes direction. But you never told me--what the electrolyte +was--I don't suppose--you--would be willing to now, would you?" + +"H'm," said Bennie, "some time, maybe." + +But this cue was all that he required. A clever scheme! Pax had formed +layers of molecular thickness of two different metals in alternation by +the to-and-fro swing of his charging current. When the battery +discharged the metals went into solution, each plate becoming +alternately positive and negative. He wondered what Pax had used for an +electrolyte that enabled him to get a metallic deposit at each +electrode. And he wondered also why the metals did not alloy. But it +would not do for him to linger too long over a mere detail of equipment. +And he turned away to continue his tour of inspection, a tour which +occupied most of the morning, and during which he found a well-stocked +gallery and made himself a cup of coffee.[5] + +[Footnote 5: He even climbed with Atterbury to the very summit of the +tractor, where he discovered that his original guess had been correct +and that the car rose from the earth rocket fashion, due to the back +pressure of the radiant discharge from a massive cylinder of uranium +contained in the tractor. Against this block played a disintegrating ray +from a small thermic inductor, the inner construction of which he was +not able to determine, although it was obviously different from his own, +and the coils were wound in a curious manner which he did not +understand. There might be something in Hiroshito's theory after all. +The cylinder of the tractor pointed directly downward so that the blast +was discharged through the very centre of the Ring, but it could be +swung through a small angle in any direction, and by means of this +slight deflection the horizontal motion of the machine secured. Perhaps +the most interesting feature of the mechanism was that the Ring appeared +to have automatic stability, for the angle of the direction in which the +tractor was pointed was controlled not only by a pair of gyroscopes +which kept the Ring on an even keel, but also by a manometric valve +causing it to fly at a fixed height above the earth's surface. Should it +start to rise, the diminished pressure of the atmosphere operating on +the valve swung the tractor more to one side, and the horizontal +acceleration was thus increased at the expense of the vertical.] + +But the more he learned about the mechanism of the Ring the greater +became his misgivings about undertaking the return journey alone with +Atterbury through the air. If they were to go, the start must be made +within a few days, for the condenser held its charge but a comparatively +short time, and its energy was necessary for starting the Ring. When +freshly charged it supplied current for the thermic inductor for nearly +three minutes, but the metallic films, deposited on the plates, +dissolved slowly in the fluid, and after three or four days there +remained only enough for a thirty-second run, hardly enough to lift the +Ring from the earth. Once in the air, the downward blast from the +tractor operated a turbine alternator mounted on a skeleton framework at +the centre of the Ring, and the current supplied by this machine enabled +the Ring to continue its flight indefinitely, or until the cylinder of +uranium was completely disintegrated. + +Yet to trek back over the route by which he had come appeared to be +equally impossible. There was little likelihood that the two Indians +would return; they were probably already thirty miles on their way back +to the coast. If only he could get word to Thornton or some of those +chaps at Washington they might send a relief expedition! But a ship +would be weeks in getting to the coast, and how could he live in the +meantime? There were provisions for only a few days in the Ring, and the +storehouse in the valley had been wiped out of existence. Only an +aeroplane could do the trick. And then he thought of Burke, his +classmate--Burke who had devoted his life to heavier-than-air machines, +and who, since his memorable flight across the Atlantic in the _Stormy +Petrol_, had been a national hero. Burke could reach him in ten hours, +but how could _he_ reach Burke? In the heart of the frozen wilderness of +Labrador he might as well be on another planet, as far as communication +with the civilized world was concerned. + +A burst of sunlight shot through the window and formed an oval patch on +the floor at his feet. The weather was clearing. He went out upon the +platform. Patches of blue sky appeared overhead. As he gazed +disconsolately across the valley toward the tower, his eye caught the +glisten of something high in the air. From the top of the wreckage five +thin shining lines ran parallel across the sky and disappeared in a +small cloud which hung low over the face of the cliff. + +"The antennae!" exclaimed Bennie. "A wireless to Burke." Burke would +come; he knew Burke. A thousand miles overland was nothing to him. +Hadn't he wagered five thousand dollars at the club that he would fly to +the pole and bring back Peary's flag--with no takers? Why, Burke would +take him home with as little trouble as a taxicab. And then, aghast, he +remembered the complete destruction in the valley. The wireless plant +had gone with the rest. He ran back into the chart room and called +Atterbury. + +"Can we get off a message to Washington?" he demanded. "The wires are +still up, and we have the condenser." + +"We might, sir, if it's not--a long one, though you've always said there +was danger in running the engine with the car bolted down. We did it the +time the big machine burnt out a coil. I can throw--a wire--over the +antennae with a rocket--and join up--with the turbine machine. It will +increase--our wave length, but they ought to pick us up." + +"We'll try it, anyway," announced Bennie. + +He inspected the chart and measured the distance in an airline from +Boston to the point where the red lines converged. It was a trifle less +than the distance between Boston and Chicago. Burke had done that in +nine hours on the trial trip of his trans-Atlantic monoplane. If the +machine was in order and Burke started in the morning he would be with +them by sunset, if he didn't get lost. But Bennie knew that Burke could +drive his machine by dead reckoning and strike within a few leagues of a +target a thousand miles away. + +A muffled roar outside interrupted his musings, and running out on the +platform again he found Atterbury attaching the cord of the aluminum +ribbon, which the rocket had carried up and over the antennae, to one of +the brush bars of the alternator. + +"Nearly ready, sir," he said. "We'd best--lock the storm bolts--to hold +her down--in case we have--to crowd on the power. We've got to +use--pretty near the full lift--to get the alternator up--to the proper +speed." + +A chill ran down Bennie's spine. They were going to start the engine! In +a moment he would be within twenty feet of a blast of disintegration +products capable of lifting the whole machine into the air, and it was +to be started at his command, after he had worked and pottered for two +years with a thermic inductor the size of a thimble! He felt as he used +to feel before taking a high dive, or as he imagined a soldier feels +when about to go under fire for the first time. How would it turn out? +Was he taking too much responsibility, and was Atterbury counting on him +for the management of details? He felt singularly helpless as he +reentered the chart room to compose his message. + +He turned on the electric lamp which hung over the desk, for in the +fast-gathering dusk the interior of the Ring was in almost total +darkness. How should his message read? It must be brief: it must tell +the story, and, above all, it must be compelling. + +He was joined by the electrician. + +"I think--we are all--ready now," stammered the latter. "What will you +send, sir?" + +Bennie handed him a scrap of yellow paper, and Atterbury put on a pair +of dark amber glasses, to protect his eyes from the light of the spark. + + "_Thornton, Naval Observatory, Washington:_ + + "Stranded fifty-four thirty-eight north, seventy-four eighteen + west. Have the Ring machine. Ask Burke come immediately. Life and + death matter. + + "B. HOOKER." + +Atterbury read the message and then gazed blankly at Hooker. + +"I--don't--understand," he said. + +"Never mind, send it. I'll explain later." Together they went into the +condenser room. + +Atterbury mechanically pushed the brass balls in contact, shoved a +bundle of iron wires halfway through the core of a great coil, and +closed a switch. A humming sound filled the air, and a few seconds later +a glow of yellow light came in through the window. A cone of luminous +vapour was shooting downward through the centre of the Ring from the +tractor. At first it was soft and nebulous, but it increased rapidly in +brilliancy, and a dull roar, like that of a waterfall, added itself to +the hum of the alternating current in the wires. And now a third sound +came to his ears, the note of the turbine, low at first, but gradually +rising like the scream of a siren, and the floor of the Ring beneath his +feet throbbed with the vibration. + +Bennie forgot the dynamometer, forgot his message to Burke, was +conscious only that he had wakened a sleeping volcano. Then came the +crack of the sparks, and the room seemed filled with the glare of the +blue lightning, for Atterbury, with his telephones at his ears, staring +through his yellow glasses, was sending out the call for the Naval +Observatory. + +"NAA--NAA--P--A--X." + +Over and over again he sent the call, while in the meantime the +condenser built up its charge from the overflow of current from the +turbine generator. Then the electrician opened a switch, and the roar +outside diminished and finally ceased. + +"We can't listen--with the tractor running," he fretted. "The +static--from the discharge--would tear--our detector--to pieces." He +threw in the receiving instrument. For a few moments the telephones +spoke only the whisperings of the arctic aurora, and then suddenly the +faint cry of the answering spark was heard. Bennie watched the words as +the electrician's pencil scrawled along on the paper. + + "Waiting for you. Why don't you send? N.A.A." + +"They must have--called us before--while the discharge--was running +down," muttered Atterbury. "I think we can send--with the +condenser--now." + +He picked up the scrap of yellow paper, read it over, and threw out into +space the message which he did not understand. + +"O. K. Wait. Thornton," came in reply. + +Two hours later came a second message: + + "P--A--X. Burke starts at daybreak. Expects reach you by nine P. M. + Asks you to show large beacon fire if possible. + + "THORNTON, N. A. A." + +"Hurrah!" cried Bennie. "Good for Burke! Atterbury, we're saved--saved, +do you hear! Go to bed now and don't ask any questions. And say, before +you go see if you can find me a glass of brandy." + + * * * * * + +It was decided that Burke must land on the plateau above the cliff, and +here the material for the fire was collected. There was little enough of +it and it was hard work carrying the oil up the steep trail. At times +Bennie was almost in despair. + +"It won't burn half an hour," said he, surveying the pile. "And we ought +to be able to keep it going all night. There's plenty of stuff in the +valley, but we can't have him come down there, with the tower, the +antennae, and all the rest of the mess." + +"We might--show him--the big Ray," ventured Atterbury. "The thing--can +be pointed up--and I can--keep the turbine running. You can start--the +fire--as soon as you--hear his motors--and I'll shut down--as soon as I +see your fire." + +"Good idea!" agreed Bennie. "Only don't run continuously. Show the Ray +for a minute every quarter of an hour, and on no account start up after +you see the fire. If he thought the vertical beam was a searchlight and +flew through it----" Bennie shuddered at the thought of Burke driving +his aeroplane through the Ray that had shattered the Atlas Mountains. + +So it was arranged. Half an hour after sunset Atterbury shut himself up +in the Ring, and while Bennie climbed the trail leading to his post on +the plateau, he heard the creaking of the great inductor as it slowly +turned on its trunions. + +It was pitch dark by the time he reached the pitifully small pile of +brush which they had collected, and he poured some of the oil over it +and sat down, drawing a blanket around his shoulders. He felt very much +alone. Suppose the inductor failed to work? Suppose Atterbury turned the +Ray on him? Suppose.... But his musings were shattered by a noise from +the valley, a sound like that of escaping steam, and a moment later the +Lavender Ray shot up toward the zenith. Bennie lay on his back and +watched it, mindful of the night before the last when he had watched the +Ray from the tower descending upon the cliff. He wondered if he should +see any meteorites kindle in its path, but nothing appeared and the Ray +died down, leaving everything in darkness again. Fifteen minutes passed +and again the ghostly beam shot up into the night sky. Bennie looked at +his watch. It was nearly half-past eight. The cold made him sleepy. He +drew the blanket about him.... + +Two hours later through his half-dreams he caught the faint sound for +which he had been listening. At first he was not sure. It might be the +turbine alternator of the Ring running by its own inertia for some time +after the discharge had ceased. But no, it was growing louder +momentarily, and appeared to come from high up in the air. Now it died +away to nothingness, and now it swelled in volume, and again died away. +But at each subsequent recurrence it was louder than before. There was +no longer any doubt. Burke was coming! It was time to start the brush +pile. He lit match after match, only for the wind to blow them out. Yet +all the time the machine in the air was coming nearer, the roar of its +twin engines beating on the stillness of the Labrador night. In despair +Bennie threw himself flat on his face by the brush pile and made a tent +of the blanket, under which he at last succeeded in starting a blaze +among the oil-soaked twigs. Then he pushed the half-empty keg into the +fire, arose and stared up at the sky. + +The machine was somewhere directly above him--just where he could not +say. Presently the motors stopped. He shouted feebly, running up and +down with his eyes turned skyward, and several times nearly fell into +the fire. He wondered why it didn't appear. It seemed hours since the +motors stopped! Then unexpectedly against the black background of the +sky the great wings of the machine appeared, illuminated on their +underside by the light of the fire. Silently it swung around on its +descending spiral, instantly to be swallowed up in the darkness again, a +moment later reappearing from the opposite direction, this time low down +and headed straight for him. He jumped hastily to one side and fell +flat. The machine grounded, rose once or twice as it ran along the +ground, and came to a stop twenty yards from the fire. A man climbed +out, slowly removed his goggles, and shook himself. Bennie scrambled to +his feet and ran forward waving his hat. + +"Well, Hooker!" remarked the man. "What th' hell are you doing _here_? +You sure have some searchlight!" + + * * * * * + +How Hooker and Burke, under the guidance of Atterbury, who gradually +regained his normal mental status, explored and charted the valley of +the Ring is strictly no part of this tale which deals solely with the +end of War upon the Earth. But next day, after several hours of +excavation among the debris of the smelter, where Pax had extracted his +uranium from the pitch blend mined at the cliff, they uncovered eight +cylinders of the precious metal weighing about one hundred pounds +apiece--the fuel of the Flying Ring. Now they were safe. Nay, more: +universal space was theirs to traffic in. + +Curious as to the reason why Pax had isolated himself in this frozen +wilderness, they next examined the high cliffs which shut in the valley +on the west and against the almost perpendicular walls of which he had +played the Lavender Ray. These cliffs proved, as Bennie had already +suspected, to be a gigantic outcrop of pitchblende or black oxide of +uranium. He estimated that nature had stored more uranium in but one of +the abutments of this cliff than in all the known mines of the entire +world. This radioactive mountain was the fulcrum by which this modern +Archimedes had moved the earth. The vast amount of matter disintegrated +by the Ray and thrown off into space with a velocity a thousandfold +greater than the blast of a siege gun produced a back pressure or recoil +against the face of the cliff, which thus became the "thrust block" of +the force which had slowed down the period of the earth's rotation. + + * * * * * + +The day of the start dawned with a blazing sun. From the landing stage +of the Ring Bennie could see stretching away to the east, west, and +south, the interminable plains, dotted with firs, which had formed the +natural barrier to the previous discovery of Pax's secret. Overhead the +dome of the sky fitted the horizon like an enormous shell--a shell +which, with a thrill, he realized that he could crack and escape from, +like a fledgling ready for its first flight. And yet in this moment of +triumph little Bennie Hooker felt the qualm which must inevitably come +to those who take their lives in their hands. An hour and he would be +either soaring Phoebus-like toward the south, or lying crushed and +mangled within a tangled mass of wreckage. Even here in this desolate +waste life seemed sweet, and he had much, so much to do. Wasn't it, +after all, a crazy thing to try to navigate the complicated mechanism +back to civilization? Yet something told him that unless he put his fate +to the test now he would never return. He had the utmost confidence in +Burke--he might never be able to secure his services again--no, it was +now or never. He entered the air-lock, closing and bolting the door, and +passed on into the chart room. + +At all events, he thought, they were no worse off than Pax when he had +made his first trial flight, and they were working with a proven +machine, tuned to its fullest efficiency, and one which apparently +possessed automatic stability. Atterbury had gone to the condenser room +and was waiting for the order to start, while Burke was making the final +adjustment of the gyroscopes which would put the Ring on its +predetermined course. He came through the door and joined Bennie. + +"Hooker," he said, "we're sure going to have some experience. If I can +keep her from turning over, I think I can manage her. The trouble will +come when we slant the tractor. I'm not sure how much depends on the +atmospheric valve, and how much on me. Things may happen quickly. If we +turn over we're done for." + +He held out his hand to Bennie, who gripped it tremulously. + +"Well," remarked the aviator, tossing away his cigarette, "we might as +well die now as any time!" + +He walked swiftly over to the speaking-tube which communicated with the +condenser room and blew sharply into it. + +"Let her go, _Gallagher_!" he directed. + +"My God!" ejaculated Bennie. "Wait a second, can't you?" + +But it was too late. He grabbed the rail, trembling. A humming sound +filled the air, and the gyroscopes slowly began to revolve. He looked up +through the window at the tractor, from which shot streaks of pale +vapour with a noise like escaping steam. Somehow it seemed alive. + +The Ring was throbbing as if it, too, was impregnated with life. The +discharge of the tractor had risen to a muffled roar. Shaking all over, +Bennie crossed to the inside window and looked across the inner space of +the Ring. As yet the yellow glow of the discharge was scarcely visible, +but the steel sides of the Ring danced and quivered, undulating in +waves, and, as the intensity of the blast increased and the turbine +commenced to revolve, everything outside went suddenly blurred and +indistinct. + +Dropping to his knees, Bennie looked down through the observation window +in the floor. A blinding cloud of yellow dust was driving out and away +from the base of the landing stage in the form of a gigantic ring. The +earth at their feet was hidden in whirls of vapour; and ripples of light +and shade chased each other outward in all directions, like shadows on +the bottom of a sandy pond rippled by a breeze. It made him dizzy to +look down there, and he arose from the window. Burke stood grimly at the +control, unmindful of his associate. Bennie crossed to the other side, +and as he passed the gyroscopes, the air from the swiftly spinning discs +blew back his hair. He could see nothing through the tumult that roared +down through the centre of the Ring, like a Niagara of hot steam shot +through with a pale yellow phosphorescent light. The floor quivered +under his feet, and ominous creaking and snapping sounds reverberated +through the outer shell, as the steel girders of the landing stage were +gradually relieved of its weight. Just as it seemed to him that +everything was going to pieces, suddenly there was silence, save for the +purr of the machinery, and Bennie felt his knees sink under him. + +"We're off!" cried Burke. "Watch out!" + +The floor swayed as the Ring, lifted by the tractor, swung to and fro +like a pendulum. Bennie threw himself upon his stomach. The earth was +dropping away from them like a stone. He felt a sickening sensation. + +"Two thousand feet already," gasped Burke. "The atmospheric valve is set +for five thousand. I'll make it ten! It will give us more room to +recover in--if anything--goes wrong!" + +He gave the knob another half turn and laid his hand lightly on the +lever which controlled the movements of the tractor. Bennie, flattened +against the window, gazed below. The great dust ring showed indistinctly +through a blue haze no longer directly beneath them, but a quarter of a +mile to the north. Evidently they were not rising vertically. + +The valley of the Ring looked like a black crack in a greenish-gray +desert of rock and moss, the landing stage like a tiny bird's nest. The +floor of the car moved slightly from side to side. Burke's face had gone +gray, and he crouched unsteadily, one hand gripping a steel bracket on +the wall. + +"My Lord!" he mumbled with dry lips. "My Lord!" + +Bennie, momentarily expecting annihilation, crawled on all fours to +Burke's side. + +The needle of the manometer indicated nine thousand five hundred feet, +and was rapidly nearing the next division. Suddenly Burke felt the lever +move slowly under his hand as though operated by some outside +intelligence, and at the same moment the axis of one gyroscope swung +slowly in a horizontal plane through an angle of nearly ninety degrees, +while that of the other dipped slightly from the vertical. Both men had +a ghastly feeling that the ghost of Pax had somehow returned and assumed +control of the car. Bennie rotated the map under the gyroscope until the +fine black line on the dial again lay across their destination. Then he +crept back to his window again. The earth, far below and dimly visible, +was sliding slowly northward, and the dust ring which marked their +starting-point now lay as a flattened ellipse on the distant horizon. +Beneath and behind them in their flight trailed a thin streak of pale +bluish fog--the wake of the Flying Ring. + +They were now searing the atmosphere at a height of nearly two miles, +and the car was flying on a firm and even keel. There was no sound save +the dull roar of the tractor and a slight humming from the vibration of +the light steel cables. Bennie no longer felt any disagreeable +sensation. A strange detachment possessed him. Dark forests, lakes, and +a mighty river appeared to the south--the Moisie--and they followed it +as a fishhawk might have done, until the wilderness broke away before +them and they saw the broad reach of the St. Lawrence streaked with the +smoke of ocean liners. + +And then he lost control of himself for the first time and sobbed like a +woman--not from fear, nor weariness, nor excitement, but for joy--the +joy of the true scientist who has sought the truth and found it, has +achieved that for mankind which but for him it would have lacked, +perchance, forever. And he looked up at Burke and smiled. + +The latter nodded. + +"Yes," he remarked prosaically, "this is sure a little bit of all right! +All to the good!" + + + + +EPILOGUE + + +Meanwhile, during the weeks that Hooker had been engaged in finding the +valley of the Ring, unbelievable things had happened in world politics. +In spite of the fact that Pax, having decreed the shifting of the Pole +and the transformation of Central Europe into the Arctic zone, had +refused further communication with mankind, all the nations--and none +more zealously than the German Republic--had proceeded immediately to +withdraw their armies within their own borders, and under the personal +supervision of a General Commission to destroy all their armaments and +munitions of war. The lyddite bombs, manufactured in vast quantities by +the Krupps for the Relay Gun and all other high explosives, were used to +demolish the fortresses upon every frontier of Europe. The contents of +every arsenal was loaded upon barges and sunk in mid-Atlantic. And every +form of military organization, rank, service, and even uniform, was +abolished throughout the world. + +A coalition of nations was formed under a single general government, +known as the United States of Europe, which in cooeperation with the +United States of North and South America, of Asia, and of Africa, +arranged for an annual world congress at The Hague, and which enforced +its decrees by means of an International Police. In effect all the +inhabitants of the globe came under a single control, as far as language +and geographical boundaries would permit. Each state enforced local +laws, but all were obedient to the higher law--the Law of +Humanity--which was uniform through the earth. If an individual offended +against the law of one nation, he was held to have offended against all, +and was dealt with as such. The international police needed no treaties +of extradition. The New York embezzler who fled to Nairobi was sent back +as a matter of course without delay. + +Any man was free to go and live where he chose, to manufacture, buy, and +sell as he saw fit. And, because the fear and shadow of war were +removed, the nations grew rich beyond the imagination of men; great +hospitals and research laboratories, universities, schools, and +kindergartens, opera houses, theatres, and gardens of every sort sprang +up everywhere, paid for no one quite knew how. The nations ceased to +build dreadnoughts, and instead used the money to send great troops of +children with the teachers travelling over the world. It was against the +law to own or manufacture any weapon that could be used to take human +life. And because the nations had nothing to fear from one another, and +because there were no scheming diplomatists and bureaucrats to make a +living out of imaginary antagonisms, people forgot that they were French +or German or Russian or English, just as the people of the United States +of America had long before practically disregarded the fact that they +came from Ohio or Oregon or Connecticut or Nevada. Russians with weak +throats went to live in Italy as a matter of course, and Spaniards who +liked German cooking settled in Muenich. + +All this, of course, did not happen at once, but came about quite +naturally after the abolition of war. And after it had been done, +everybody wondered why it had not been done ten centuries before; and +people became so interested in destroying all the relics of that +despicable employment, warfare, that they almost forgot that the Man Who +Rocked the Earth had threatened that he would shift the axis of the +globe. So that when the day fixed by him came and everything remained +just as it always had been--and everybody still wore linen-mesh +underwear in Strassburg and flannels in Archangel--nobody thought very +much about it, or commented on the fact that the Flying Ring was no +longer to be seen. And the only real difference was that you could take +a P. & O. steamer at Marseilles and buy a through ticket to Tasili +Ahaggar--if you wanted to go there--and that the shores of the Sahara +became the Riviera of the world, crowded with health resorts and +watering-places--so that Pax had not lived in vain, nor Thornton, nor +Bill Hood, nor Bennie Hooker, nor any of them. + +The whole thing is a matter of record, as it should be. The +deliberations of Conference No. 2 broke up in a hubbub, just as Von +Helmuth and Von Koenitz had intended, and the transcripts of their +discussions proved to be not of the slightest scientific value. But in +the files of the old War Department--now called the Department for the +Alleviation of Poverty and Human Suffering--can be read the messages +interchanged between The Dictator of Human Destiny and the President of +the United States, together with all the reports and observations +relating thereto, including Professor Hooker's Report to the Smithsonian +Institute of his journey to the valley of the Ring and what he found +there. Only the secret of the Ring--of thermic induction and atomic +disintegration--in short, of the Lavender Ray, is his by right of +discovery, or treasure trove, or what you will, and so is his patent on +Hooker's Space-Navigating Car, in which he afterward explored the solar +system and the uttermost regions of the sidereal ether. But that shall +be told hereafter. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man Who Rocked the Earth, by +Arthur Train +Robert Williams Wood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO ROCKED THE EARTH *** + +***** This file should be named 19174.txt or 19174.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/7/19174/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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