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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/29410-8.txt b/29410-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..449bc74 --- /dev/null +++ b/29410-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1667 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The End of Time, by Wallace West + +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 End of Time + +Author: Wallace West + +Release Date: July 15, 2009 [EBook #29410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF TIME *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories March 1933. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + + The End of Time + + + + By Wallace West + + * * * * * + + + + +[Sidenote: By millions of millions the creatures of earth slow and +drop when their time-sense is mysteriously paralyzed.] + + +"There is no doubt of it!" The little chemist pushed steel-bowed +spectacles up on his high forehead and peered at his dinner guest with +excited blue eyes. "Time will come to an end at six o'clock this +morning." + +Jack Baron, young radio engineer at the Rothafel Radio laboratories, +and protégé of Dr. Manthis, his host, laughed heartily. + +"What a yarn you spin, Doctor," he said. "Write it for the movies." + +"But it's true," insisted the older man. "Something is paralyzing our +time-sense. The final stroke will occur about daybreak." + +"Bosh! You mean the earth will stop rotating, the stars blink out?" + +"Not at all. Such things have nothing to do with time. You may know +your short waves, but your general education has been sadly +neglected." The scientist picked up a weighty volume. "Maybe this will +explain what I mean. It's from Immanuel Kant's 'Critique of Pure +Reason.' Listen: + + 'Time is not something which subsists of itself, or which + inheres in things as an objective determination, and + therefore, remains, when abstraction is made of the + subjective conditions of the intuition of things. For in + the former case it would be something real, yet without + presenting to any power of perception any real object. In + the latter case, as an order of determination inherent in + things themselves, it could not be antecedent to things, as + their condition, nor discerned or intuited by means of + synthetical propositions _a priori_. But all this is quite + possible when we regard time as merely the subjective + condition under which all our intuitions take place.' + +"There. Does that make it clear?" + +"Clear as mud," grinned Baron. "Kant is too deep for me." + +"I'll give you another proof," snapped Manthis. "Look at your watch." + +The other drew out his timepiece. Slowly his face sobered. + +"Why, I can't see the second hand," he exclaimed. "It's just a blur!" + +"Exactly! Now look at the minute hand. Can you see it move?" + +"Yes, quite clearly." + +"What time is it?" + +[Illustration: _A few remained standing like statues._] + +"Half past one. Great Scott! So that's why you spun that yarn." Baron +hoisted his six feet one out of the easy chair. "It's way past your +bedtime. Didn't mean to keep you up." He stared again at his watch as +if it had betrayed him. "It seems we just finished dinner. I must have +dozed off...." + +"Nonsense," sniffed Manthis. "You arrived at eight o'clock--an hour +late. You and I and my daughter had dinner. Then the two of us came in +here. We smoked a cigarette or two. Now it's half-past one. Do you +need more proof?" + +"Your theory's all wet somewhere," the younger man protested with a +shaky laugh. "If my watch isn't broken, time must be speeding up, not +stopping." + +"That comes from depending on your senses instead of your +intelligence. Think a minute. If the watch seems running double speed +that would indicate that your perception of its movements had slowed +down fifty per cent." + +Baron sank back into his chair, leaned forward and gripped his curly +black hair with trembling fingers. He felt dizzy and befuddled. + +"June," called the doctor. Then to the agitated youth he added: "Watch +my daughter when she comes in if you still think I'm crazy." + +As he spoke the door flew open and a slim, golden-haired girl shot +into the room like a motion picture character in one of those comedies +which is run double speed. Jack's eyes could hardly follow her +movements. + +She came behind her father and threw one slim arm about his shoulders. +She spoke, but her usually throaty voice was only a high-pitched +squeak. + +"Can't understand you, dear," interrupted her father. "Write it down." + +"June is using a drug which I prepared to keep her time sense normal," +Manthis explained as the girl's pen raced over a pad. "That's why she +disappeared after dinner. I wanted you to get the full effect. Now +read this." + +"The deadline is approaching," the girl's message read. "You'd better +take your injection now. It is 2:30 A.M." + +"All right, prepare the hypodermics," directed the chemist. He had to +repeat this in a falsetto voice before June understood. "Make one for +Jack too." + +June went out at express-train speed. + +Baron glanced at his watch again. The minute hand was moving with the +speed at which the second hand usually traveled. Three fifteen +already! + +When he looked up June was in the room again with two hypodermic +needles. Quickly she removed her father's coat and made the injection. + +"Let her fix you up too, boy, unless you want to become a graven +image," commanded Manthis. His voice, which started at the ordinary +pitch, went up like a siren at the end as the drug took effect. +Dazedly Jack held out his arm. + + * * * * * + +The sting of the needle was followed by a roaring in his ears like a +hundred Niagaras. The room seemed to pitch and quiver. Staring down at +the watch he still clutched, Jack saw the hands slow down and at last +resume their accustomed pace. Gradually the unpleasant sensations died +away. + +"That was a close shave," commented the doctor, drawing a long breath. +"I wouldn't have waited so long, except that I wanted to experience +the sensation of coming back from the edge of the infinite. Not very +nice! Like being pulled out of a whirlpool. It's 4:30 now. Took us an +hour to return to normal, although it seemed only minutes. We have an +hour and a half before the end. June, have you noticed anything +unusual on the streets?" + +"Yes," whispered his daughter, her usually piquant face pinched and +white. "I've been watching from the balcony. It's dreadful. The people +creep about like things in a nightmare." + +Manthis tried to reassure her. On his face was a great sadness which +was, however, overshadowed by a greater scientific curiosity. + +"There's nothing we can do for them now," he said. "But we must learn +all we can. Let's go down and watch the city die." + +They descended in an automatic elevator and hurried through the hotel +lobby. The lights of Fifth Avenue gleamed as brightly as ever. The +streets near the lower end of Central Park still were crowded. But +such crowds! They moved with infinite langour. Each step required many +seconds. + +Yet the people apparently did not know that anything unusual was +happening. Many perhaps were puzzled because their watches seemed to +be misbehaving but this did not stop their conversation as they +traveled home from theaters or night clubs. Two white-haired men +passed by, engaged in a discussion of business affairs. Their voices +were pitched so low that they were almost inaudible to the trio of +watchers, while their gestures looked like the slow waving of the +antennae of deep sea plants. + + * * * * * + +"My God, man!" cried Baron, at last awakening from his horror-stricken +silence. "Why didn't you warn the world? This is criminal. If what you +say is true, all these people will become rooted in their tracks at +six o'clock like--like characters from 'The Sleeping Beauty.'" + +"I only discovered the danger a week ago while working out a chemical +formula." Manthis' eyes showed the strain he was enduring. "It was a +very delicate piece of work having to do with experiments I am making +on chlorophyl--quick adjustments, you know. I'd done the thing before +many times, but last week I couldn't mix the ingredients fast enough +to get the necessary reaction. Puzzled, I made further experiments. +The result was that I discovered my perception of time was slowing +down. I tested June and found the same thing. There was but one +conclusion." + +"But the drug we are using. How did you hit on that?" + +"I recalled that such drugs as hashish greatly speed up the time +sense. An addict is able to review his entire past life or plan an +elaborate crime between two heartbeats. So I collected a small supply +of the stuff." + +"But hashish in large doses is deadly, and I've heard that users of it +sooner or later develop homicidal mania--run amuck as they say in +India." + +"True enough," admitted the chemist, "but Andrev, the Russian, you +know, recently worked out a formula to neutralize the deadly effects +of the drug but retain its time-expanding effect for medical purposes. +I've added that to the pure drug. There isn't enough of it in New York +to keep all these people normal for five minutes. Why should I have +frightened the poor things?" + +He relapsed into silence and the others found no heart to ask further +questions as they watched the coming of the end of a world. The +procession of passers-by had thinned somewhat by now. The street +lights had grown dim. There was a look of increasing puzzlement on the +faces of the people who remained. Something was wrong. They knew not +what. + + * * * * * + +Floating along the sidewalk like a figure in a slow motion picture +came a tiny tot of three. She was sobbing. Great tears formed with +painful slowness and slid down her flushed cheeks. + +"She's lost," exclaimed June. "Here, darling, I'll find your mama." + +She picked up the child and looked up and down the street. The mother +was not in sight. Automatically she turned to a policeman who stood +nearby. + +"Officer," she said quickly, "this girl is lost. Will you...?" + +She stiffened in dismay. The policeman was staring through her as if +his eyes had not registered her approach. Slowly his gaze came into +focus. A puzzled look came over his Irish face. He spoke. It was only +a blurred rumble. + +"What can I do for her, Father?" June cried, turning away from the +officer in despair. "She's dying. See? Couldn't we give her some of +the drug?" + +"There's only enough for us," her father replied firmly. + +"But she'll be quite dead in an hour!" + +"I'm not so sure of that. Perhaps only in a state resembling +catalepsy. We must wait. Jack, take her into the lobby. Put her on a +sofa there." + +Dawn was paling the blue-black sky as the radio engineer returned. The +street lights fluttered fitfully and at last died. The streets had +become deserted although groups still eddied slowly about the subway +kiosks. + +"Five forty-five," whispered Manthis. "The end should come any +moment." + +As he spoke a white-garbed street sweeper, who had been leaning on his +broom at the curb ever since the onlookers had reached the sidewalk, +decided to move on at last. With infinite slowness his foot came up. +He poised, swung forward, then, the universal paralysis overcoming +him, remained in a strangely ludicrous position for a moment before +crashing downward on his face. + +As far as they could see in the semidarkness, others were falling. A +few, balanced with feet wide apart, remained standing like statues. +Those who collapsed writhed slowly a time or two and were still. + +After the thudding of the bodies had ended the silence became ghastly. +Not an awakening bird twittered in the trees of Central Park. Not a +sheep bleated in the inclosure. Except for their own breathing and the +sighing of the wind, not a sound! Then a faraway clock boomed six +notes. The noise made them start and turn pale faces toward each +other. + +"Come," said the doctor heavily. "It's all over. We might as well go +up. We'll have to walk. All power will be off. Twenty stories!" + + * * * * * + +The lobby of the Hotel Atchison, on the roof of which the penthouse +apartment was located, was empty now except for a few clerks and +bellboys. These sat with bowed heads before their grills or on their +benches as if they had merely succumbed to the unpardonable sin of +sleeping on duty. But they did not breathe. + +June clung to her father's arm as they crossed noiselessly over the +heavy carpet. + +"The city will be a charnel house when these bodies start to +decompose." Baron hesitated. "Shouldn't we get out of town while there +is a chance?" + +Manthis shook his head. "No. I'm convinced these people aren't dead. +They're simply outside of time. Change cannot affect them. If I'm not +mistaken they will remain just the same indefinitely." + +"But there will be fires throughout the city." + +"Not many. The electricity is off. The day is warm so no furnaces are +going. Not even a rat is left to nibble matches, for the animals must +be affected in the same way that humans are. The world is asleep." + + * * * * * + +After mounting interminable stairs they regained the apartment and +went out on the balcony. It was full daylight now but not a +smoke-plume trailed from tall chimneys. Not a bird was on the wing. +Elevated trains stood on their tracks, passengers and guards asleep +inside. + +"I still don't understand," muttered Baron. "The sun comes up. The +wind blows. How can that be if there is no time? Might this not be +some plague?" + +"In a way you are right, boy. It is a plague which has paralyzed man's +sense of time. You have become involved by not remembering Kant's +axiom that time is purely subjective. It exists in the mind only. It +and space are the only ideas inherently in our brains. They allow us +to conduct ourselves among a vast collection of things-in-themselves +which time does not affect." + +"But--" + +"Wait a moment. Granting that time is in the mind rather than in the +outside world, what will happen if the time-sense is paralyzed? Won't +the effect be similar to hypnosis whereby a man is reduced to a +cataleptic state? The thought chain which usually passes ceaselessly +through the brain is halted." + +Seeing that the engineer still looked puzzled, June interposed: + +"It's something like enchantment," she explained. "The old legends are +full of it--the Sleeping Beauty, Brunhilde, Rip Van Winkle. I am +convinced that in ancient times a few persons knew how to draw a fairy +ring about those they wished to injure or protect, placing them thus +outside the reach of time and change. This has now happened the world +over, perhaps through some drift in the ether or germ in the brain. +That is what we must find out so we can solve the mystery and take +steps to reawaken the world--" + +"Perhaps this will help," interrupted Manthis in his turn. "As you +know, all the great scientists--Einstein, Jeans, Pavlov--are convinced +that everything in the universe is a form of vibration. Even thought, +they believe, operates somewhat like a very short radio wave. What if +some agency, either inside or outside the universe, began interfering +on the thought-wave channel?" + +"Granting your supposition,"--Jack was on his own ground +now--"transmission would be impossible on that channel." + +"Exactly! Well, that's what I am convinced is taking place. I'm a +chemist, not an engineer. I've given you the lead. You'll have to do +the rest. Do you think you might locate such interference?" + +"Possibly. I'll do my best." + +"Fine! Of course, if it is coming from outside the stratosphere as the +cosmic rays do, there is no hope. But if someone is broadcasting such +a devilish wave from an earthly station we may have a chance to stop +it. + +"Now, Baron, my boy," he continued, dropping into a more jovial tone +and leading his friend into the laboratory, "you'll have to get busy +if you intend to keep us ticking. This equipment is at your disposal." +He waved toward a newly installed short wave radio transmitter. "Here +are storage batteries, all charged." He opened another door. "I have a +five kilowatt generator installed here. It is operated by a gasoline +engine. If you need other equipment you can raid the Rothafel plant." + + * * * * * + +Returning to the main laboratory he indicated the work table set close +to a great double window overlooking Central Park. + +"Couldn't ask for anything better, could you?" he smiled. "Plenty of +light and air and a view of the city. Look, you can even see those +poor devils lying around the subway kiosk." His face became bleak. +Then he shrugged and tried to throw off his depression. "June and I +will help you as much as we can. We can raid stores for provisions and +hashish. New let's have breakfast." + +The next few days were filled with unending labor for the temporal +castaways. From daybreak until far into the night, with radio +receivers clamped over their ears, the three twisted dials, adjusted +rheostats and listened in on long and short wave bands. But the ether, +which once had pulsated with music and friendly voices, now was +silent, except for static. + +"Makes me think of Sunday mornings when I was a boy," Manthis once +commented. "Only this is more quiet. It gives me the jitters." There +was a note of hysteria in his voice. + +When the doctor's nerves began to quiver in that manner, Baron always +insisted that they all rest. During such recesses they ate, played +cards and helped June with the housework. The younger man was +continually amazed by the calmness with which the girl faced their +desperate situation. Clad in a blue smock which brought out the color +of her eyes, she flitted about the apartment, manufacturing delicious +meals out of canned goods and always having a cheery word when the +others became discouraged. Yet she never would look out the window. + +"I can't bear to see those poor souls lying about like rag dolls," she +explained. "The only thing that keeps me sane is the hope that we may +reawaken them." + + * * * * * + +It was on the evening of the third day that Baron lifted the headset +from his burning ears and admitted failure. + +"We've explored everything but the super-short waves," he sighed. +"I'll have to get equipment from the laboratories before we start on +those." + +June nodded from where she perched on a high stool across the table. +But Manthis did not hear. He was making delicate adjustments on his +receiving set and listening with rapt attention. + +"I've got something," he cried. "Jack. June. Plug in on my panel. +Someone is talking. It's very loud. Must be close." + +Instantly the others did as he ordered, but were able to catch only +the last inflections of a ringing voice. Then silence settled once +more. + +"What did he say," the youngsters cried in one breath. + +"Couldn't understand. Some foreign language." The chemist was furious +with disappointment. "But I'd recognize that voice among a thousand. +We must get in touch with him. Perhaps he can help us. God knows we +need assistance. Quick, Jack. You're an expert. See if you can pick up +a reply." + +Baron leaned over his instruments, heart thumping. The dreadful +loneliness against which he had been fighting was broken. Others were +alive! + +Minutes passed and the evening light died away. They were too excited +to strike a light. Shadows crept out of the corners and surrounded +them. At last a faint voice grew in their ears. But again the words +were unintelligible. + +"Sounds a little like Greek," puzzled the girl, "but it isn't." + +Baron adjusted the direction finder and made scribbled calculations. + +"Coming from the southeast and far away," he breathed. + +"I caught a word then," gasped the doctor. "'Ganja,' it was." + +"What does that tell us?" snapped Jack, his nerves jumping. + +"Ganja is the Hindu word for hashish, that's all. My Lord, man, don't +you understand? The station is in India. Those who operate it are +using Andrev's solution as we are. I--" + +"Listen!" shouted Jack. + + * * * * * + +There was a grinding and clashing in the receivers. Then a new voice, +harsh and strained with excitement, almost burst their eardrums. + +"Beware! Beware!" it screamed. "Do not trust him. He is a devil and +has put the world asleep. His mind is rotten with hashish. He is a +demon from--" Then came a dull, crunching sound. The voice screamed +and died away. + +In the darkened laboratory the faces of the three listeners stood out +like ovals of white cardboard. + +"What do you make of that?" stammered Baron at last. + +"It looks as if the only persons alive, in New York at least, are +hashish addicts--the most debased and murderous of drug fiends." The +doctor stopped, his eyes dilating with horror. June crept close to him +and threw an arm around his shaking shoulders. "Can't you see? Their +time-sense expanded too. Like us they were unaffected. But unlike us +they use the pure drug. Hashish smokers are without exception +homicidal maniacs, vicious criminals. God!" + +"Are they responsible for the end of time?" queried Jack. + +"I don't know. Perhaps some master mind among them is back of it--some +engineering wizard who has succumbed to the drug so recently, or who +has such a strong constitution that his intelligence has not been +destroyed." + +The little doctor dragged off his headset, disarranging his sparse +gray hair. His face was tired and worn but his jaw thrust forward +pugnaciously. + +"We're making headway," he cried. "We know the probable author of the +catastrophe is a drug addict and that he is located nearby. We know he +has no scruples, for the man who warned us undoubtedly was killed. And +I'm convinced those extremely short wave bands hold the secret. Let's +knock off for the day. We look like ghosts. To-morrow morning you and +June get what equipment you need from across the river. I'll stay here +on guard. You'd better raid a drug-store and get some more of our +life-saver, too. It's listed under Cannabis Indica." + + * * * * * + +The next morning dawned clear and cold. It was early October and there +was a chill in the apartment. Baron swung his legs over the edge of +the davenport in the living room and stared out at the frost-covered +trees of Central Park. The leaves were falling before the brisk wind +and forming little eddying mounds over the forms of those lying about +the streets. Jack shivered at the thought of the millions and millions +of victims of the disaster who littered the Earth. They seemed to +accuse him of still being alive. Well, if Manthis was right, perhaps +all could be revived before winter set in. + +June was singing as he and the doctor came to breakfast. Apparently +she wished to forget the events of the previous night, so they laughed +and joked as though they intended to go on a picnic rather than across +a dead city. + +The hotel lobby was as they last had seen it when they descended. The +bellboys still nodded on their benches. A travelling salesman was +hunched over a week-old Times as if he would awake in a few minutes, +glance about guiltily and resume his reading. The child they had +rescued still lay on the divan. Her golden hair framed her cheeks like +a halo. One arm was thrown above her head. She seemed ready to awake, +though she had not breathed for days. + +"It all makes me feel so lonely," whispered June, clinging to the +engineer's arm. "I want to cry--or whistle to keep up my courage." + +"Don't worry," Jack replied softly, patting her hand and speaking with +more assurance than he felt. "We'll find a way out." + +She squeezed his arm and smiled at him with new courage. For months, +in fact ever since his first visit to the Manthis apartment, Baron had +admired the doctor's charming daughter. Although nothing had been +said of love between them they often had gone to a dance or the +theater together, while a firm friendship had been cemented. Now their +closer association and the unflinching bravery which she showed was +ripening this into a stronger bond. + + * * * * * + +They went out into the crisp morning, stepped across the body of a +street sweeper who lay in the gutter, and entered the doctor's +automobile. Through the silent city they drove, Baron watching +carefully to avoid striking stalled cars or grotesquely sprawling +bodies. + +There was a tangle of wrecked automobiles in the center of the +Queensboro Bridge and they were forced to push them apart to get +through. While they were engaged in this arduous work, a drifting +ferry bumped into a pier, shaking the dreaming captain into a +semblance of life at the wheel. + +"I used to like fairy tales," moaned June. "They're dreadful, really." + +She clung to him like a frightened child. He drew her close and kissed +her. + +"I love you, June," he whispered, as though fearful that the sleeping +drivers of the tangled cars might overhear. "Don't be afraid." + +"I'm not--now," she smiled through eyes filled with tears. "I've loved +you for months, Jack. Whatever happens, we have each other." + +He helped her back into the car and drove on in silence. At last the +Rothafel plant gloomed before them, forbidding as an Egyptian tomb. +With a feeling that he was entering some forbidden precinct, Jack led +the way to his office. Somehow, without its usual bustle and bright +lights, it seemed alien. + +Once inside he forgot his hesitation and set about collecting +equipment--queerly shaped neon tubes, reflectors, coils, electrodes. +Soon there was a pile of material glinting on top of his desk. + +They were exploring a deep cabinet with the aid of a flashlight when a +strange clicking sound made them whirl simultaneously. In a corner of +the room a deeper blot of shadow caught their eyes. Jack snapped on +the flash. In the small circle of light a long, cadaverous face +appeared. Thin lips were drawn back over wide-spaced yellow teeth. +Black eyes stared unwinkingly into the light. The flash wavered as the +engineer tried to get his nerves under control. + +"It's nothing," he assured the trembling girl. "A night watchman +caught as he was making his rounds, probably. Don't get excited." He +wet his lips. + +"He's alive!" screamed June. "The eyelids! They moved!" + + * * * * * + +"Yes, I'm alive," boomed a hoarse voice. "I thought I was the only man +God had spared. Pardon me for frightening you. I was so +thunderstruck...." + +The stranger stepped forward. He was dressed in a long black topcoat, +high collar and string tie. The clicking noise was explained when he +rubbed his long white hands together, making the knuckles pop like +tiny firecrackers. + +"Ivan Solinski, at your service." He smiled with what evidently was +intended to be warmth, again showing those rows of teeth like picket +fences. "I suppose we're all here on the same mission: to find a +solution for the mystery of the world's paralysis." The apparition lit +a long and bloated cigarette and through the acrid smoke surveyed them +quizzically. + +"I'm Jack Baron, formerly on the staff here, and this is June Manthis, +daughter of Dr. Frank Manthis, head of the chemical research +department." The engineer winced as Solinski enfolded his hand in a +clammy grip. + +"Ah yes, I know the doctor by hearsay. A great scientist. He has a +lovely daughter"--bowing deeply to June as he let his beady eyes +wander over her face and figure. "Perhaps we can join forces, although +I must admit I have abandoned hope. It is God's will." He rolled his +eyes toward heaven, then riveted them once more upon June. + +"Why, certainly." Jack was striving to overcome his growing dislike. +"We'll be driving back in a few minutes. Would you care to come with +us?" + +"No." The pupilless eyes skittered toward Baron for a moment. "I know +the doctor's address. I will come to visit you soon. Now I must be +going." Solinski turned as if to depart, then strode to the desk and +looked down at the mass of equipment. "Ah, super-short wave tubes, I +see. Very clever." His dexterous fingers lingered over them a moment. +Then he bowed and was gone. + + * * * * * + +The two remained staring at the empty doorway. + +"I--I wish he'd been dead--sleeping," whispered June at last, twisting +her handkerchief with trembling fingers. "He--I didn't like the way he +kept looking at me." + +"He seemed all right to me." Jack tried to forget his own prejudice. +"He's willing to help us." + +"Might he not be one of the hashish addicts? Those eyes--the pupils +were mere pinpoints--and those evil-smelling cigarettes." + +"Then why should he have offered to help?" puzzled Jack. "He could +have killed us." + +"Nevertheless I hope we've seen the last of him. Are you about +through? Let's get out of this awful place. He looked like a mummy!" + +They drove back to the apartment so completely preoccupied that both +forgot to obtain the drug which the doctor had requested. + +"Yes, I've heard of him," Manthis said after he had been informed of +the encounter. "A naturalized Russian. Used to do quite a bit of +valuable work in various fields of physics. But he was some sort of +radical--seems to me an old-fashioned anarchist--and not popular. He +dropped out of sight several years ago. I presumed he was dead." + +They soon had the new equipment installed and again began exploring +the wave bands, beginning with the comparatively lengthy ones and +working down into those only slightly longer than light. It was +tedious work, but all were by now as adept as Jack in combing the +ether and their task progressed rapidly. Despite the labor, however, +nothing could be heard. There was only the universal, breathless +silence. At times they moved to the commercial bands and tried to pick +up the stations they had heard on the previous day, but even there +they met with failure. + + * * * * * + +By the evening of the third day they had left the wave bands which +could be measured in meters and were exploring those strange and +almost wholly uncharted depths of the ether which must be calculated +in centimeters. There at last luck favored them. It was Jack who +caught a strange pulsating tone on the three-centimeter band. It rose +and fell, rose and fell, then died away like the keening of a lost +soul. + +"Listen," he whispered. "Plug in here. I've found something." + +June and the doctor followed his instructions. Delicately fingering +the coils, Baron picked up the sound again, only to lose it. Then it +came once more. This time he followed it as it changed to the five +centimeter band. Back and forth it went as though weaving an intricate +and devilish web. + +"What do you make of it?" queried the doctor at last. + +"Don't know." Jack bit his lips. "It's no natural phenomenon, I'll +swear. Somebody is manipulating a broadcasting station of terrific +power not far from here and playing with that wave as a helmsman +brings a sailing ship into the wind and lets her pay off again." + +"What do we do now?" The little chemist, finding his theory apparently +confirmed, was at a loss. "Could we wreck that station?" + +"Fat chance!" The engineer laughed bitterly as he reached for a +cigarette. "Whoever has conceived that bit of hellishness is well +guarded. The three of us wouldn't have a ghost of a show. What I can't +understand is--" + +"No use talking about theories now." Manthis sat down, crushed. +Dropping his head in his bands, he pulled his few hairs as though that +might drag out an idea. "What's to be done? Do you realise that we +hold more responsibility than ever man has held before? Caesar! +Napoleon! They were pikers. We have to save a world." + + * * * * * + +Silence greeted his outburst. The scratching of a match as June lit a +cigarette sounded like an explosion. Then the smoke eddied undisturbed +while the three stared vacantly into space, trying to think. + +"Couldn't we"--the girl swallowed hesitantly as she realized her +ignorance of radio engineering--"couldn't we interfere with that wave? +Interfere with the wave which already is breaking up the thought +waves. Cancel its power. Oh, Jack, you must know what I mean." + +"With this dinky, five-kilowatt station? We couldn't reach Yonkers +against the power they've got. By Jove!" He leaped to his feet as a +new thought struck him. "Maybe we could just wake up New York. Get +help from the police then! Smash that other station afterwards!" + +"But we don't know whether interference would break the spell," +interposed the practical doctor. "And it will take a lot of practise +to follow that wave. It jumps back and forth like a grasshopper." + +"And if we don't do it right the first time, whoever is operating that +station will be down on us like a ton of brick," admitted Jack. + +"Let's get the child we saved," suggested June. "We can bring her up +here. Then we'll need only a little power, just enough to be effective +in this room, to bring her to life if we can. They wouldn't hear our +wave." + +"Great!" Jack bent over and kissed her. "You're a real help. I'll be +back in a minute." He dashed out. Soon they heard his step on the +stairs and he reappeared, tenderly bearing his golden-haired burden. + +"Now, June," he commanded briskly, "place her in a comfortable +position on the work table while I get ready." He began arranging +equipment and connecting it with the bank of storage batteries. + +"Shall I adjust a headset for her?" asked the impatient doctor. + +"Be yourself!" Jack placed a crooked vacuum tube near the child's head +and clamped two flat electrodes on her temples. "This wave must act +directly on the brain. The sense of hearing has nothing to do with it. + +"All right, Sleeping Beauty." He stretched the kinks out of his aching +back. "Let's see what we can do for you. Pardon me, Doctor, if I +seemed rude. This is ticklish work. Pick up the outside wave for me. +Thanks. Now I've got our dinky sending station set on the same wave +length at a different frequency. It's adjusted so that as I keep in +touch through this tuning coil, our wave will fluctuate over the same +path as the other. It should take six or eight hours to overcome the +effect on her, I judge. Here we go. June, you'd better get yourself +and your dad some food. Doctor, you examine the kid from time to time. +In an hour or so June can relieve me." + +He pressed a switch. The tubes filled with a green glow. + + * * * * * + +Two hours passed, and the sun was sinking behind the trees of the park +in a bloody haze when Jack at last signaled for June to handle the +dials. For a time he guided her slim fingers. Then, as she caught the +trick, he rose and stretched his cramped muscles. + +"Don't lose the wave for a moment or we'll have to start all over +again," he warned. "Now for dinner!" + +She nodded and, frowning slightly, bent over the dials. + +At that moment there came a heavy knock on the apartment door. + +"Who's that?" gasped Manthis, his face turning grey. + +"Probably Solinski," replied Jack, feeling his spine crawl as he +remembered the moldy Russian. "Fine time he chose for a visit." + +"Shall I let him in?" + +"Don't see what else there is to do." + +"Good evening," cried their guest as Manthis opened the door. "Ah, Dr. +Manthis, I believe. I have heard so much about your work." His hoarse +yet ringing voice made the little man start violently and caused June +to shake her head in annoyance as the sound interfered with the +humming of the vagrant wave. "Sorry I could not come earlier." +Solinski advanced into the laboratory, giving the effect of driving +the chemist before him. "Trying to revive one of the sufferers, I see. +May God aid you in this noble work." + + * * * * * + +He spread the tails of his long coat and sat down. As he talked his +eyes flashed about the room, taking in every detail and at last +fastening on June's fresh beauty like those of a vampire. "Not," he +boomed as he lighted a cigarette, "not that I believe it possible--" + +Catching an agonized glance from Jane, Jack interrupted: + +"You'll have to speak softly, sir. This is ticklish work." + +"I beg your pardon." The Russian lowered his voice so that it squeaked +piercingly like a rusty hinge. He wrung his hands audibly. + +"Perhaps we'd better move into the living room," suggested the doctor, +hovering in the background. "There we can talk without interrupting." + +Their guest unfolded joint by joint like a collapsible rule. + +"Of course, if you think I'm spying," he grated. + +"Not at all," protested Jack, although he longed to strike the brute +across the face. "It's just that voices of certain pitches interfere. +Surely you have seen radio operators go all to pieces when spoken to." + +Ungraciously Solinski allowed himself to be ushered into the outer +room. Once there he disposed his lean form on another chair, +unctuously refused a highball, and, forgetting his momentary anger, +soon was deep in a scientific discussion of the problems involved in +revivifying the world. + +He mentioned the nearby radio station but declared that he had been +unable to locate it despite a careful search. Dismissing this he +turned to other topics, displaying a vast knowledge of all departments +of scientific achievement and, despite his depressing personality, +holding his bearer's attention so closely they forgot the passage of +time until the clock struck ten. + +"Time for daily injection," said the doctor. "Do you use Andrev's +solution too, sir?" + +"Naturally," replied the other, lighting one cigarette from the butt +of another. + +Manthis hurried into the laboratory. A few moments later he reappeared +in the doorway and called to Jack in an agitated voice. As the younger +man joined him he closed the door and turned a white face to him. + +"The drug is almost gone," Manthis said. "Didn't you obtain a new +supply?" + + * * * * * + +"We--I forgot it," admitted Jack, feeling his own face grow pale. "The +shock of running across Solinski at the laboratory upset me." + +"Well, that's all right, then. It gave me a turn, but we have plenty +of time." The doctor laughed shakily. "Run down to the nearest drug +store. There should be a supply there. Better take a flashlight." + +He pushed open the door, then shrank back. Leaning against the jamb +was the Russian. His manner had changed subtly. His thin lips spread +from ear to ear in a wolfish grin. His fingers clicked like castanets. + +"Ah," he purred. "So you have used up the last of your solution?" + +"What's that to you?" The doctor was gripped by cold unreasoning fear. + +"Only that you will be unable to obtain more. Since my first meeting +with your daughter I have had my men collect all the Cannabis Indica +in the city." + +"Your men!" Manthis was thunderstruck. + +"Certainly, you old fool. Do you think I'm a bungling theorist like +yourself? Who do you think is operating that short-wave station? I am. +Who do you think put the world to sleep? I did. Who do you think will +wake it? I will." + +Solinski's figure appeared to expand. He took deep drafts from his +cigarette. The smoke seemed to impel some terrific force into his +gaunt frame. + +"So it was your voice I heard!" cried Manthis bitterly. "And those +awful tales about you were true. A hashish smoker! A person whose mind +is rotting, in control of the world!" He seemed about to leap at the +other, and his chubby figure, in that attitude, would have seemed +ludicrous if it had not been tragic. "It shall not be!" he shouted. + +"Now see here, Doctor"--Solinski assumed a friendly tone--"you're +making a grave mistake. I have something to offer better than you ever +dreamed of." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just this. How would you like to be assistant to the King of the +World?" + + * * * * * + +"Crazy already," sneered the doctor, squinting up at his tormentor. + +"Crazy or not, when the world awakes I will be its king." + +"Why, damn you, I thought you were an anarchist and wanted to do away +with kings and governments," sputtered the little man. + +Solinski burst into a gale of fiendish laughter. + +"An anarchist is merely a capitalist without money or power," he +quoted. + +"What do you want of us?" demanded Manthis, playing for time. + +"Very simple. This: I intend soon to begin awakening those who will +serve me, first in New York and then throughout the world. When I +have a skeleton government built up, I will withdraw the wave and +allow the people to revive. Clever, isn't it? Especially for such a +madman as you think me." He snapped his fingers and leered cunningly +at them. + +The doctor choked but Jack's hand on his arm steadied him. + +"You have a very beautiful daughter," resumed their diabolical +visitant. + +"Leave my daughter's name out of this," cried Manthis, recoiling. + +"Not at all. Her charm and ability have greatly impressed me--so +impressed me that I have decided to make her my queen." + +"You scum of the gutter. You filthy beast. I'd die before I'd be a +party to such a thing!" The doctor was beside himself. + +"I consider myself justified," replied the other, taking great delight +in baiting his foe. "The world was never able to govern itself. We +anarchists have bided our time, although overshadowed by communists, +Fascists and such ridiculous experimenters. Now comes our turn. I +shall be the viceroy of God. Under my rule and that of Queen June the +world shall become a second heaven." + +He rolled his eyes upward at those words. As he did so, Jack, who had +been awaiting just such an opportunity, struck him on the jaw. + + * * * * * + +The blow would have felled an ox but Solinski merely staggered back a +step and snarled. Before Baron could renew the attack he jerked an +automatic from beneath his coat and leaped to the hall door. + +"You I shall kill," he grinned evilly. "But not now. First you must +taste the horror of sinking into the long sleep. You have no more +drug, nor can you obtain any. Those pitiful storage batteries will be +exhausted by the time you have aroused the child. So you must sleep +unless you have the courage to kill yourself. Doctor, I deeply regret +that this has occurred, but you see that I must let you and June sleep +too. When I have need of you I will recall you. That is all. Farewell. +May God pity you, Baron. I will not." + +He sprang through the door and, the tails of his black coat flapping +like the wings of a gigantic bat, vanished down the stairs. + +Manthis slammed the door and locked it, then leaned weakly against the +panels and wiped his round face. His hands shook pitifully. + +"This then is the end," he whispered hoarsely. + +"Is there none of the drug left?" Jack shook him out of his lethargy. + +"Enough for a half portion for all of us," sighed the doctor. "But +what use of that? Better we poisoned ourselves now and escaped that +demon." + +"Nonsense. A half portion means twelve hours of life. In that time I +can rig up the big transmitter. Perhaps there is still time to revive +New York. Solinski won't know we have a generator until we turn on the +power. Quick. Poor June must be nearly frightened to death at our +shouting." + + * * * * * + +But they found the girl sitting tense and jubilant at the controls. + +"Father! Jack!" she cried as the door opened. "It's working. I saw her +move. That means we may be able to revive the world!" Her face was +streaked with tears. + +"Her heart's beating," whispered the doctor, feeling the child's +pulse. "Slow but steady. She'll regain consciousness any moment now." + +"No time to wait." Disregarding June's cry of protest Jack stripped +off the electrodes. "We must get the big machine working." + +"But the little thing will die again," cried June, throwing herself on +her knees beside the tot. "I didn't think you could be so cruel." + +"Solinski has cut off our drug supply," explained Manthis gently. +"He's operating the other station. Don't blame Jack. We must work +fast." + +"You mean that Russian is responsible for all this?" + +"Yes, child. But maybe we can defeat him yet. Don't lose courage. Now +I must go and prepare what's left of the drug. We're overdue for it +now." + +Meanwhile Jack was busy running leads from the generator room, +connecting banks of tubes, stringing an aerial on the terrace. + +"Twelve hours! Twelve hours!" he muttered. "Just time to make it if +the doctor's calculations are correct. June, hand me those pliers, but +be careful of the wires. I haven't time to insulate them. When we +start the dynamo they'll be carrying twelve thousand volts." + +"But won't Solinski and his men come back and kill us?" For the first +time the full weight of despair descended upon her brave spirit. + +"Probably. Does your father have a revolver?" + +"I--I think so." + +"Find out." Jack connected a loading coil with deft fingers. "Then go +down to a sporting goods store and get some ammunition. If there are +any shotguns in the place bring two back with plenty of buckshot +shells. I don't think we're being watched yet, but if you're attacked, +run for it." + +Noting she looked hurt at his abruptness, he kissed her quickly. + +"Sorry, darling. Every second counts. Run along, like a good girl." + +She smiled for the first time in a long while and patted his hand. + + * * * * * + +When she returned, two shotguns and several boxes of shells held like +wood in her bent arms, the generator was sparkling merrily. The +gasoline engine barked steadily and the vacuum tubes glowed green. + +Manthis came in at that moment and injected all the remaining drug as +Jack gave crisp orders. Automatically the engineer had taken command. + +"I'll get things going and handle the dials until Solinski sends his +rats down on us. June, you watch the street door. Run up at the first +sign of an attack. After that you'll take my place and hold it, no +matter what happens, until we succeed or are killed. The doctor and I +will go downstairs when you come up, and hold them off or retreat +slowly. Thank heaven we can command both the front and rear stairways +from the halls. Now doctor, watch the circuit breaker. I'm going to +throw on full power." + +As he advanced the rheostat the tubes glowed brighter, bathing the +room in unearthly light. Jack adjusted his headset, and smiled up at +June. She kissed him bravely before hurrying to her dangerous post. + +Once more he sat listening to that whining, fluctuating wave. The +engineer's thoughts wavered between speculations on the future, fond +memories of June and impatience with the dragging hours. Would nothing +ever happen? Through the earphones now came a jangling, agonized +whine, as if the two antagonistic waves were endowed with life and +actually struggling in the ether. + +From time to time his glance wandered to the child, who, having +obtained a head start through her preliminary treatment, now was +stirring fretfully. + +Slowly the time plodded by. Jack smoked cigarette after cigarette in +an effort to fight off the drowsiness which loaded his eyelids with +lead. + +It must have been three o'clock when a whimper from the divan apprised +them that the child at last had awakened. + +"Where's mama?" She blinked into the glare. "I've lost my mama." + +"There, there, honey," soothed the doctor, stopping his pacing up and +down the room and picking her up. "Your mama had to go away for +awhile. She'll be back any minute. Let's go find a drink of water. And +I've something for you to play with too." Gently he carried her into +June's bedroom. + +Soon he reappeared and patted Jack on the shoulder. + +"Our first victory," he said in a broken voice. "She's in perfect +condition and sleeping naturally now. I gave her one of June's old +dolls to play with." He sighed and collapsed into the nearest chair. +"I'm almost dead with the strain of it. Do you think there's a +chance?" + +"Three more hours should turn the trick. I don't understand why +Solinski--" + +The crash of a shotgun, coming faint but clear from the street below, +brought him up short. The shot was answered by a volley of rifle fire. + + * * * * * + +Jack almost lost the wave in his excitement, but regained it with a +desperate twist of the wrist. No time for nerves now. He must be calm! + +"Go down and hold them until June can get back to relieve me," he +ordered. "Hurry. They may rush her any moment." + +The doctor seemed ten years younger as he thrust a revolver into his +pocket, snatched a shotgun from behind the door and ran out. + +The commotion had awakened the child, who started whimpering, adding +further to Jack's distractions. Yet he managed, in spite of ghastly +mental pictures of June being torn to pieces by her attackers, to keep +his hands steady. + +A few minutes later she slipped into the room and laid her cold cheek +against his before taking her place at the instruments. + +"It's all right," she added. "I don't think they'll attack in the +dark. There are five of them. I'm sure I wounded or killed one. They +weren't expecting a guard. I left the gun with father. He's behind the +cashier's desk." Then, all her courage evaporating, she turned an +appealing, little girl face toward her lover. "Don't let yourself be +killed, Jack. I'd die too." + +"June, you're wonderful," he whispered. "I didn't know there was a +girl alive as brave as you. Good-by. No matter what happens, keep the +wave in tune." He kissed her tenderly, trying not to think he had done +so for the last time, and hurried out. + +The stairs were black as the inside of a tomb. Once he stumbled over +the body of a charwoman and came near falling headlong. + +"Nothing's happened since that first volley," whispered Manthis when +Jack slipped into the cage. "They're holding off for dawn. Look!" his +voice wavered. "Was that a face at the window?" He fired wildly. Glass +tinkled. + +"Easy," warned Baron. "Don't waste ammunition. Besides, if you get +this place full of smoke they'll jump us." + + * * * * * + +Dawn was painting the windows gray when the assault began. Their first +warning came when a small object was tossed into the lobby. It +exploded in a cloud of white vapor. + +"Tear gas," yelled Jack. "Back to the stairs." They ran for cover, +weeping and choking. + +Then began a slow retreat up the stairways, Jack guarding the front +and Manthis the back passages. At first it was a simple matter for +their enemies to toss tear bombs through the fire doors, then, +protected by respirators, capture another floor. But as the light +increased this became more and more hazardous. Twice a spray of +buckshot laid a Solinski man low. + +"He hasn't many men available," called Jack as the attack slackened. +"But watch out. His time's about up. Hey, look at that woman!" A +white-uniformed maid, whom he remembered having seen lying in the same +spot every time he climbed the stairs, had stirred weakly, as though +about to wake. + +It was their glance at the sleeping form which undid them. When they +looked up both fire doors were open and helmeted figures were emerging +from them. + +The shotguns roared. Two of their attackers collapsed, but the others +came on. Before there was time for another shot they were at close +quarters. Standing back to back, Manthis and Jack clubbed their guns +and held their ground. + +The fact that Solinski and his men wore respirators handicapped them +immensely, so that the two defenders kept a cleared circle about them. + +One of the attackers, more daring than the rest, leaped forward to +engage the engineer. He collapsed with a crushed skull. + +Then, when victory seemed in their grasp, luck turned. At Jack's next +blow the stock of his weapon parted from the barrel, leaving him +almost defenseless. At the same time Manthis slipped and collapsed +from a knife thrust. + + * * * * * + +Jack was left alone to face three enemies and would have been killed +within the minute had not Solinski, recalling the little time he had +left to stop the interfering wave, deserted his comrades and sprinted +for the laboratory. + +The seeming defection of their chief threw the other two attackers +into momentary confusion. Before they could recover, Jack knocked one +out with the gun barrel, then came a flying tackle at the other. + +But he had caught a tartar. His remaining enemy was a gigantic Negro. +Recovering from his surprise the latter lifted high a glittering knife +to finish his disarmed foe. Jack snatched at the uplifted arm--missed! + +A revolver cracked. The hooded Negro staggered, then crashed forward. + +"Remembered my pistol just in time," gasped the doctor from the floor. +"Don't bother about me. I'm all right. Stop Solinski, for God's sake." + +Although his lungs seemed bursting Baron turned and flew up the +stairs. Being familiar with every turn, he gained on the Russian and +caught sight of the dreadful black coat-tails as his enemy burst +through to the twentieth floor. The locked door of the apartment +baffled him only a moment. Stepping back, Solinski hurled his giant +frame against the panels. They splintered and crashed inward. But the +delay allowed Jack to catch up. + +He leaped on the Russian's back. Locked together they reeled into the +living room. For a fleeting moment Jack saw June sitting rigidly at +the instruments. Her eyes were starting from their sockets but her +hands were steady. + +"I warned you to kill yourself," Solinski's voice rose in a screaming +whisper through the respirator. "Now I will do it." Displaying the +strength of madness he hurled Jack from him. Losing all control of his +limbs, the younger man flew across the room and demolished the divan +in his fall. But the thought of what Solinski would do to June +brought him back to the attack. + + * * * * * + +The fury of their struggle wrecked the living room. Both bled from +numerous wounds. One of the Russian's bleak eyes closed under a +well-directed blow, but otherwise he seemed unaffected. Jack grappled +again and realized his mistake as he was caught in a bone-cracking +grip and forced into the laboratory. + +Baron felt a rib snap. A sweat of agony broke out over his body. +Holding his enemy helpless the invader worked his way toward the work +table. They bumped against it, making the equipment totter perilously. +Solinski released his grip, snatched a bottle of distilled water and +swung. + +Jack felt his head explode. The room went dark. But in his +semi-consciousness he remembered he must not let the Russian reach +that switch. As he slid slowly to the floor, he grasped the other's +legs. + +The drug fiend tried to kick free, stumbled, struck the table with his +hips. Throwing out his arms to regain his balance he plunged one hand +among the naked cables which led from the generator to the +transformers and tubes. + +A blinding flash of light and the scream of a soul in torment +followed. As a nauseating odor of burning flesh filled the room, the +Russian was hurled backward like a rubber ball. He struck the window +which overlooked the park, crashed through the large panel and fell! + +June sat as though hypnotised, forcing herself to manipulate those +dials. + +Jack crawled to the window and watched the black body swoop downward +like a wounded bird, the coat flapping like crippled wings. After what +seemed an eon it struck the edge of the subway kiosk, bounced like a +rag doll and sprawled across the pavement. + +Still Jack did not move. Through a haze of his own blood he stared, +the fate of his enemy forgotten. All about the kiosk bodies which had +laid so still for the past week were moving. The little figures, not +much larger than ants from that height, yawned, sat up and stretched +as though it was the commonest thing in the world to take a nap in the +midst of Fifth Avenue. It was as if the last swoop of that batlike +figure had returned them to consciousness. + +"The world is alive! The world is alive!" Baron croaked wildly as he +felt his senses slipping from him. "We have won, June! We have won!" + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The End of Time, by Wallace West + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 29410-8.txt or 29410-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/1/29410/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and 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 End of Time + +Author: Wallace West + +Release Date: July 15, 2009 [EBook #29410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF TIME *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories March 1933. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> + +<h1>The End of Time</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>By Wallace West</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="sidenote">By millions of millions the creatures of earth slow and +drop when their time-sense is mysteriously paralyzed.</div> + + +<p><span class="f1">"T</span>here is no doubt of it!" The little chemist pushed steel-bowed +spectacles up on his high forehead and peered at his dinner guest with +excited blue eyes. "Time will come to an end at six o'clock this +morning."</p> + +<p>Jack Baron, young radio engineer at the Rothafel Radio laboratories, +and protégé of Dr. Manthis, his host, laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>"What a yarn you spin, Doctor," he said. "Write it for the movies."</p> + +<p>"But it's true," insisted the older man. "Something is paralyzing our +time-sense. The final stroke will occur about daybreak."</p> + +<p>"Bosh! You mean the earth will stop rotating, the stars blink out?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all. Such things have nothing to do with time. You may know +your short waves, but your general education has been sadly +neglected." The scientist picked up a weighty volume. "Maybe this will +explain what I mean. It's from Immanuel Kant's 'Critique of Pure +Reason.' Listen:</p> + +<blockquote><p>'Time is not something which subsists of itself, or which +inheres in things as an objective determination, and +therefore, remains, when abstraction is made of the +subjective conditions of the intuition of things. For in +the former case it would be something real, yet without +presenting to any power of perception any real object. In +the latter case, as an order of determination inherent in +things themselves, it could not be antecedent to things, as +their condition, nor discerned or intuited by means of +synthetical propositions <i>a priori</i>. But all this is quite +possible when we regard time as merely the subjective +condition under which all our intuitions take place.'</p></blockquote> + +<p>"There. Does that make it clear?"</p> + +<p>"Clear as mud," grinned Baron. "Kant is too deep for me."</p> + +<p>"I'll give you another proof," snapped Manthis. "Look at your watch."</p> + +<p>The other drew out his timepiece. Slowly his face sobered.</p> + +<p>"Why, I can't see the second hand," he exclaimed. "It's just a blur!"</p> + +<p>"Exactly! Now look at the minute hand. Can you see it move?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, quite clearly."</p> + +<p>"What time is it?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="568" alt="A few remained standing like statues." /> +</div> + +<p>"Half past one. Great Scott! So that's why you spun that yarn." Baron +hoisted his six feet one out of the easy chair. "It's way past your +bedtime. Didn't mean to keep you up." He stared again at his watch as +if it had betrayed him. "It seems we just finished dinner. I must have +dozed off...."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," sniffed Manthis. "You arrived at eight o'clock—an hour +late. You and I and my daughter had dinner. Then the two of us came in +here. We smoked a cigarette or two. Now it's half-past one. Do you +need more proof?"</p> + +<p>"Your theory's all wet somewhere," the younger man protested with a +shaky laugh. "If my watch isn't broken, time must be speeding up, not +stopping."</p> + +<p>"That comes from depending on your senses instead of your +intelligence. Think a minute. If the watch seems running double speed +that would indicate that your perception of its movements had slowed +down fifty per cent."</p> + +<p>Baron sank back into his chair, leaned forward and gripped his curly +black hair with trembling fingers. He felt dizzy and befuddled.</p> + +<p>"June," called the doctor. Then to the agitated youth he added: "Watch +my daughter when she comes in if you still think I'm crazy."</p> + +<p>As he spoke the door flew open and a slim, golden-haired girl shot +into the room like a motion picture character in one of those comedies +which is run double speed. Jack's eyes could hardly follow her +movements.</p> + +<p>She came behind her father and threw one slim arm about his shoulders. +She spoke, but her usually throaty voice was only a high-pitched +squeak.</p> + +<p>"Can't understand you, dear," interrupted her father. "Write it down."</p> + +<p>"June is using a drug which I prepared to keep her time sense normal," +Manthis explained as the girl's pen raced over a pad. "That's why she +disappeared after dinner. I wanted you to get the full effect. Now +read this."</p> + +<p>"The deadline is approaching," the girl's message read. "You'd better +take your injection now. It is 2:30 A.M."</p> + +<p>"All right, prepare the hypodermics," directed the chemist. He had to +repeat this in a falsetto voice before June understood. "Make one for +Jack too."</p> + +<p>June went out at express-train speed.</p> + +<p>Baron glanced at his watch again. The minute hand was moving with the +speed at which the second hand usually traveled. Three fifteen +already!</p> + +<p>When he looked up June was in the room again with two hypodermic +needles. Quickly she removed her father's coat and made the injection.</p> + +<p>"Let her fix you up too, boy, unless you want to become a graven +image," commanded Manthis. His voice, which started at the ordinary +pitch, went up like a siren at the end as the drug took effect. +Dazedly Jack held out his arm.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>he sting of the needle was followed by a roaring in his ears like a +hundred Niagaras. The room seemed to pitch and quiver. Staring down at +the watch he still clutched, Jack saw the hands slow down and at last +resume their accustomed pace. Gradually the unpleasant sensations died +away.</p> + +<p>"That was a close shave," commented the doctor, drawing a long breath. +"I wouldn't have waited so long, except that I wanted to experience +the sensation of coming back from the edge of the infinite. Not very +nice! Like being pulled out of a whirlpool. It's 4:30 now. Took us an +hour to return to normal, although it seemed only minutes. We have an +hour and a half before the end. June, have you noticed anything +unusual on the streets?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," whispered his daughter, her usually piquant face pinched and +white. "I've been watching from the balcony. It's dreadful. The people +creep about like things in a nightmare."</p> + +<p>Manthis tried to reassure her. On his face was a great sadness which +was, however, overshadowed by a greater scientific curiosity.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing we can do for them now," he said. "But we must learn +all we can. Let's go down and watch the city die."</p> + +<p>They descended in an automatic elevator and hurried through the hotel +lobby. The lights of Fifth Avenue gleamed as brightly as ever. The +streets near the lower end of Central Park still were crowded. But +such crowds! They moved with infinite langour. Each step required many +seconds.</p> + +<p>Yet the people apparently did not know that anything unusual was +happening. Many perhaps were puzzled because their watches seemed to +be misbehaving but this did not stop their conversation as they +traveled home from theaters or night clubs. Two white-haired men +passed by, engaged in a discussion of business affairs. Their voices +were pitched so low that they were almost inaudible to the trio of +watchers, while their gestures looked like the slow waving of the +antennae of deep sea plants.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">"M</span>y God, man!" cried Baron, at last awakening from his horror-stricken +silence. "Why didn't you warn the world? This is criminal. If what you +say is true, all these people will become rooted in their tracks at +six o'clock like—like characters from 'The Sleeping Beauty.'"</p> + +<p>"I only discovered the danger a week ago while working out a chemical +formula." Manthis' eyes showed the strain he was enduring. "It was a +very delicate piece of work having to do with experiments I am making +on chlorophyl—quick adjustments, you know. I'd done the thing before +many times, but last week I couldn't mix the ingredients fast enough +to get the necessary reaction. Puzzled, I made further experiments. +The result was that I discovered my perception of time was slowing +down. I tested June and found the same thing. There was but one +conclusion."</p> + +<p>"But the drug we are using. How did you hit on that?"</p> + +<p>"I recalled that such drugs as hashish greatly speed up the time +sense. An addict is able to review his entire past life or plan an +elaborate crime between two heartbeats. So I collected a small supply +of the stuff."</p> + +<p>"But hashish in large doses is deadly, and I've heard that users of it +sooner or later develop homicidal mania—run amuck as they say in +India."</p> + +<p>"True enough," admitted the chemist, "but Andrev, the Russian, you +know, recently worked out a formula to neutralize the deadly effects +of the drug but retain its time-expanding effect for medical purposes. +I've added that to the pure drug. There isn't enough of it in New York +to keep all these people normal for five minutes. Why should I have +frightened the poor things?"</p> + +<p>He relapsed into silence and the others found no heart to ask further +questions as they watched the coming of the end of a world. The +procession of passers-by had thinned somewhat by now. The street +lights had grown dim. There was a look of increasing puzzlement on the +faces of the people who remained. Something was wrong. They knew not +what.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">F</span>loating along the sidewalk like a figure in a slow motion picture +came a tiny tot of three. She was sobbing. Great tears formed with +painful slowness and slid down her flushed cheeks.</p> + +<p>"She's lost," exclaimed June. "Here, darling, I'll find your mama."</p> + +<p>She picked up the child and looked up and down the street. The mother +was not in sight. Automatically she turned to a policeman who stood +nearby.</p> + +<p>"Officer," she said quickly, "this girl is lost. Will you...?"</p> + +<p>She stiffened in dismay. The policeman was staring through her as if +his eyes had not registered her approach. Slowly his gaze came into +focus. A puzzled look came over his Irish face. He spoke. It was only +a blurred rumble.</p> + +<p>"What can I do for her, Father?" June cried, turning away from the +officer in despair. "She's dying. See? Couldn't we give her some of +the drug?"</p> + +<p>"There's only enough for us," her father replied firmly.</p> + +<p>"But she'll be quite dead in an hour!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure of that. Perhaps only in a state resembling +catalepsy. We must wait. Jack, take her into the lobby. Put her on a +sofa there."</p> + +<p>Dawn was paling the blue-black sky as the radio engineer returned. The +street lights fluttered fitfully and at last died. The streets had +become deserted although groups still eddied slowly about the subway +kiosks.</p> + +<p>"Five forty-five," whispered Manthis. "The end should come any +moment."</p> + +<p>As he spoke a white-garbed street sweeper, who had been leaning on his +broom at the curb ever since the onlookers had reached the sidewalk, +decided to move on at last. With infinite slowness his foot came up. +He poised, swung forward, then, the universal paralysis overcoming +him, remained in a strangely ludicrous position for a moment before +crashing downward on his face.</p> + +<p>As far as they could see in the semidarkness, others were falling. A +few, balanced with feet wide apart, remained standing like statues. +Those who collapsed writhed slowly a time or two and were still.</p> + +<p>After the thudding of the bodies had ended the silence became ghastly. +Not an awakening bird twittered in the trees of Central Park. Not a +sheep bleated in the inclosure. Except for their own breathing and the +sighing of the wind, not a sound! Then a faraway clock boomed six +notes. The noise made them start and turn pale faces toward each +other.</p> + +<p>"Come," said the doctor heavily. "It's all over. We might as well go +up. We'll have to walk. All power will be off. Twenty stories!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>he lobby of the Hotel Atchison, on the roof of which the penthouse +apartment was located, was empty now except for a few clerks and +bellboys. These sat with bowed heads before their grills or on their +benches as if they had merely succumbed to the unpardonable sin of +sleeping on duty. But they did not breathe.</p> + +<p>June clung to her father's arm as they crossed noiselessly over the +heavy carpet.</p> + +<p>"The city will be a charnel house when these bodies start to +decompose." Baron hesitated. "Shouldn't we get out of town while there +is a chance?"</p> + +<p>Manthis shook his head. "No. I'm convinced these people aren't dead. +They're simply outside of time. Change cannot affect them. If I'm not +mistaken they will remain just the same indefinitely."</p> + +<p>"But there will be fires throughout the city."</p> + +<p>"Not many. The electricity is off. The day is warm so no furnaces are +going. Not even a rat is left to nibble matches, for the animals must +be affected in the same way that humans are. The world is asleep."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">A</span>fter mounting interminable stairs they regained the apartment and +went out on the balcony. It was full daylight now but not a +smoke-plume trailed from tall chimneys. Not a bird was on the wing. +Elevated trains stood on their tracks, passengers and guards asleep +inside.</p> + +<p>"I still don't understand," muttered Baron. "The sun comes up. The +wind blows. How can that be if there is no time? Might this not be +some plague?"</p> + +<p>"In a way you are right, boy. It is a plague which has paralyzed man's +sense of time. You have become involved by not remembering Kant's +axiom that time is purely subjective. It exists in the mind only. It +and space are the only ideas inherently in our brains. They allow us +to conduct ourselves among a vast collection of things-in-themselves +which time does not affect."</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment. Granting that time is in the mind rather than in the +outside world, what will happen if the time-sense is paralyzed? Won't +the effect be similar to hypnosis whereby a man is reduced to a +cataleptic state? The thought chain which usually passes ceaselessly +through the brain is halted."</p> + +<p>Seeing that the engineer still looked puzzled, June interposed:</p> + +<p>"It's something like enchantment," she explained. "The old legends are +full of it—the Sleeping Beauty, Brunhilde, Rip Van Winkle. I am +convinced that in ancient times a few persons knew how to draw a fairy +ring about those they wished to injure or protect, placing them thus +outside the reach of time and change. This has now happened the world +over, perhaps through some drift in the ether or germ in the brain. +That is what we must find out so we can solve the mystery and take +steps to reawaken the world—"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps this will help," interrupted Manthis in his turn. "As you +know, all the great scientists—Einstein, Jeans, Pavlov—are convinced +that everything in the universe is a form of vibration. Even thought, +they believe, operates somewhat like a very short radio wave. What if +some agency, either inside or outside the universe, began interfering +on the thought-wave channel?"</p> + +<p>"Granting your supposition,"—Jack was on his own ground +now—"transmission would be impossible on that channel."</p> + +<p>"Exactly! Well, that's what I am convinced is taking place. I'm a +chemist, not an engineer. I've given you the lead. You'll have to do +the rest. Do you think you might locate such interference?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly. I'll do my best."</p> + +<p>"Fine! Of course, if it is coming from outside the stratosphere as the +cosmic rays do, there is no hope. But if someone is broadcasting such +a devilish wave from an earthly station we may have a chance to stop +it.</p> + +<p>"Now, Baron, my boy," he continued, dropping into a more jovial tone +and leading his friend into the laboratory, "you'll have to get busy +if you intend to keep us ticking. This equipment is at your disposal." +He waved toward a newly installed short wave radio transmitter. "Here +are storage batteries, all charged." He opened another door. "I have a +five kilowatt generator installed here. It is operated by a gasoline +engine. If you need other equipment you can raid the Rothafel plant."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">R</span>eturning to the main laboratory he indicated the work table set close +to a great double window overlooking Central Park.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't ask for anything better, could you?" he smiled. "Plenty of +light and air and a view of the city. Look, you can even see those +poor devils lying around the subway kiosk." His face became bleak. +Then he shrugged and tried to throw off his depression. "June and I +will help you as much as we can. We can raid stores for provisions and +hashish. New let's have breakfast."</p> + +<p>The next few days were filled with unending labor for the temporal +castaways. From daybreak until far into the night, with radio +receivers clamped over their ears, the three twisted dials, adjusted +rheostats and listened in on long and short wave bands. But the ether, +which once had pulsated with music and friendly voices, now was +silent, except for static.</p> + +<p>"Makes me think of Sunday mornings when I was a boy," Manthis once +commented. "Only this is more quiet. It gives me the jitters." There +was a note of hysteria in his voice.</p> + +<p>When the doctor's nerves began to quiver in that manner, Baron always +insisted that they all rest. During such recesses they ate, played +cards and helped June with the housework. The younger man was +continually amazed by the calmness with which the girl faced their +desperate situation. Clad in a blue smock which brought out the color +of her eyes, she flitted about the apartment, manufacturing delicious +meals out of canned goods and always having a cheery word when the +others became discouraged. Yet she never would look out the window.</p> + +<p>"I can't bear to see those poor souls lying about like rag dolls," she +explained. "The only thing that keeps me sane is the hope that we may +reawaken them."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">I</span>t was on the evening of the third day that Baron lifted the headset +from his burning ears and admitted failure.</p> + +<p>"We've explored everything but the super-short waves," he sighed. +"I'll have to get equipment from the laboratories before we start on +those."</p> + +<p>June nodded from where she perched on a high stool across the table. +But Manthis did not hear. He was making delicate adjustments on his +receiving set and listening with rapt attention.</p> + +<p>"I've got something," he cried. "Jack. June. Plug in on my panel. +Someone is talking. It's very loud. Must be close."</p> + +<p>Instantly the others did as he ordered, but were able to catch only +the last inflections of a ringing voice. Then silence settled once +more.</p> + +<p>"What did he say," the youngsters cried in one breath.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't understand. Some foreign language." The chemist was furious +with disappointment. "But I'd recognize that voice among a thousand. +We must get in touch with him. Perhaps he can help us. God knows we +need assistance. Quick, Jack. You're an expert. See if you can pick up +a reply."</p> + +<p>Baron leaned over his instruments, heart thumping. The dreadful +loneliness against which he had been fighting was broken. Others were +alive!</p> + +<p>Minutes passed and the evening light died away. They were too excited +to strike a light. Shadows crept out of the corners and surrounded +them. At last a faint voice grew in their ears. But again the words +were unintelligible.</p> + +<p>"Sounds a little like Greek," puzzled the girl, "but it isn't."</p> + +<p>Baron adjusted the direction finder and made scribbled calculations.</p> + +<p>"Coming from the southeast and far away," he breathed.</p> + +<p>"I caught a word then," gasped the doctor. "'Ganja,' it was."</p> + +<p>"What does that tell us?" snapped Jack, his nerves jumping.</p> + +<p>"Ganja is the Hindu word for hashish, that's all. My Lord, man, don't +you understand? The station is in India. Those who operate it are +using Andrev's solution as we are. I—"</p> + +<p>"Listen!" shouted Jack.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>here was a grinding and clashing in the receivers. Then a new voice, +harsh and strained with excitement, almost burst their eardrums.</p> + +<p>"Beware! Beware!" it screamed. "Do not trust him. He is a devil and +has put the world asleep. His mind is rotten with hashish. He is a +demon from—" Then came a dull, crunching sound. The voice screamed +and died away.</p> + +<p>In the darkened laboratory the faces of the three listeners stood out +like ovals of white cardboard.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of that?" stammered Baron at last.</p> + +<p>"It looks as if the only persons alive, in New York at least, are +hashish addicts—the most debased and murderous of drug fiends." The +doctor stopped, his eyes dilating with horror. June crept close to him +and threw an arm around his shaking shoulders. "Can't you see? Their +time-sense expanded too. Like us they were unaffected. But unlike us +they use the pure drug. Hashish smokers are without exception +homicidal maniacs, vicious criminals. God!"</p> + +<p>"Are they responsible for the end of time?" queried Jack.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Perhaps some master mind among them is back of it—some +engineering wizard who has succumbed to the drug so recently, or who +has such a strong constitution that his intelligence has not been +destroyed."</p> + +<p>The little doctor dragged off his headset, disarranging his sparse +gray hair. His face was tired and worn but his jaw thrust forward +pugnaciously.</p> + +<p>"We're making headway," he cried. "We know the probable author of the +catastrophe is a drug addict and that he is located nearby. We know he +has no scruples, for the man who warned us undoubtedly was killed. And +I'm convinced those extremely short wave bands hold the secret. Let's +knock off for the day. We look like ghosts. To-morrow morning you and +June get what equipment you need from across the river. I'll stay here +on guard. You'd better raid a drug-store and get some more of our +life-saver, too. It's listed under Cannabis Indica."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>he next morning dawned clear and cold. It was early October and there +was a chill in the apartment. Baron swung his legs over the edge of +the davenport in the living room and stared out at the frost-covered +trees of Central Park. The leaves were falling before the brisk wind +and forming little eddying mounds over the forms of those lying about +the streets. Jack shivered at the thought of the millions and millions +of victims of the disaster who littered the Earth. They seemed to +accuse him of still being alive. Well, if Manthis was right, perhaps +all could be revived before winter set in.</p> + +<p>June was singing as he and the doctor came to breakfast. Apparently +she wished to forget the events of the previous night, so they laughed +and joked as though they intended to go on a picnic rather than across +a dead city.</p> + +<p>The hotel lobby was as they last had seen it when they descended. The +bellboys still nodded on their benches. A travelling salesman was +hunched over a week-old Times as if he would awake in a few minutes, +glance about guiltily and resume his reading. The child they had +rescued still lay on the divan. Her golden hair framed her cheeks like +a halo. One arm was thrown above her head. She seemed ready to awake, +though she had not breathed for days.</p> + +<p>"It all makes me feel so lonely," whispered June, clinging to the +engineer's arm. "I want to cry—or whistle to keep up my courage."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry," Jack replied softly, patting her hand and speaking with +more assurance than he felt. "We'll find a way out."</p> + +<p>She squeezed his arm and smiled at him with new courage. For months, +in fact ever since his first visit to the Manthis apartment, Baron had +admired the doctor's charming daughter. Although nothing had been +said of love between them they often had gone to a dance or the +theater together, while a firm friendship had been cemented. Now their +closer association and the unflinching bravery which she showed was +ripening this into a stronger bond.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>hey went out into the crisp morning, stepped across the body of a +street sweeper who lay in the gutter, and entered the doctor's +automobile. Through the silent city they drove, Baron watching +carefully to avoid striking stalled cars or grotesquely sprawling +bodies.</p> + +<p>There was a tangle of wrecked automobiles in the center of the +Queensboro Bridge and they were forced to push them apart to get +through. While they were engaged in this arduous work, a drifting +ferry bumped into a pier, shaking the dreaming captain into a +semblance of life at the wheel.</p> + +<p>"I used to like fairy tales," moaned June. "They're dreadful, really."</p> + +<p>She clung to him like a frightened child. He drew her close and kissed +her.</p> + +<p>"I love you, June," he whispered, as though fearful that the sleeping +drivers of the tangled cars might overhear. "Don't be afraid."</p> + +<p>"I'm not—now," she smiled through eyes filled with tears. "I've loved +you for months, Jack. Whatever happens, we have each other."</p> + +<p>He helped her back into the car and drove on in silence. At last the +Rothafel plant gloomed before them, forbidding as an Egyptian tomb. +With a feeling that he was entering some forbidden precinct, Jack led +the way to his office. Somehow, without its usual bustle and bright +lights, it seemed alien.</p> + +<p>Once inside he forgot his hesitation and set about collecting +equipment—queerly shaped neon tubes, reflectors, coils, electrodes. +Soon there was a pile of material glinting on top of his desk.</p> + +<p>They were exploring a deep cabinet with the aid of a flashlight when a +strange clicking sound made them whirl simultaneously. In a corner of +the room a deeper blot of shadow caught their eyes. Jack snapped on +the flash. In the small circle of light a long, cadaverous face +appeared. Thin lips were drawn back over wide-spaced yellow teeth. +Black eyes stared unwinkingly into the light. The flash wavered as the +engineer tried to get his nerves under control.</p> + +<p>"It's nothing," he assured the trembling girl. "A night watchman +caught as he was making his rounds, probably. Don't get excited." He +wet his lips.</p> + +<p>"He's alive!" screamed June. "The eyelids! They moved!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">"Y</span>es, I'm alive," boomed a hoarse voice. "I thought I was the only man +God had spared. Pardon me for frightening you. I was so +thunderstruck...."</p> + +<p>The stranger stepped forward. He was dressed in a long black topcoat, +high collar and string tie. The clicking noise was explained when he +rubbed his long white hands together, making the knuckles pop like +tiny firecrackers.</p> + +<p>"Ivan Solinski, at your service." He smiled with what evidently was +intended to be warmth, again showing those rows of teeth like picket +fences. "I suppose we're all here on the same mission: to find a +solution for the mystery of the world's paralysis." The apparition lit +a long and bloated cigarette and through the acrid smoke surveyed them +quizzically.</p> + +<p>"I'm Jack Baron, formerly on the staff here, and this is June Manthis, +daughter of Dr. Frank Manthis, head of the chemical research +department." The engineer winced as Solinski enfolded his hand in a +clammy grip.</p> + +<p>"Ah yes, I know the doctor by hearsay. A great scientist. He has a +lovely daughter"—bowing deeply to June as he let his beady eyes +wander over her face and figure. "Perhaps we can join forces, although +I must admit I have abandoned hope. It is God's will." He rolled his +eyes toward heaven, then riveted them once more upon June.</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly." Jack was striving to overcome his growing dislike. +"We'll be driving back in a few minutes. Would you care to come with +us?"</p> + +<p>"No." The pupilless eyes skittered toward Baron for a moment. "I know +the doctor's address. I will come to visit you soon. Now I must be +going." Solinski turned as if to depart, then strode to the desk and +looked down at the mass of equipment. "Ah, super-short wave tubes, I +see. Very clever." His dexterous fingers lingered over them a moment. +Then he bowed and was gone.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>he two remained staring at the empty doorway.</p> + +<p>"I—I wish he'd been dead—sleeping," whispered June at last, twisting +her handkerchief with trembling fingers. "He—I didn't like the way he +kept looking at me."</p> + +<p>"He seemed all right to me." Jack tried to forget his own prejudice. +"He's willing to help us."</p> + +<p>"Might he not be one of the hashish addicts? Those eyes—the pupils +were mere pinpoints—and those evil-smelling cigarettes."</p> + +<p>"Then why should he have offered to help?" puzzled Jack. "He could +have killed us."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless I hope we've seen the last of him. Are you about +through? Let's get out of this awful place. He looked like a mummy!"</p> + +<p>They drove back to the apartment so completely preoccupied that both +forgot to obtain the drug which the doctor had requested.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've heard of him," Manthis said after he had been informed of +the encounter. "A naturalized Russian. Used to do quite a bit of +valuable work in various fields of physics. But he was some sort of +radical—seems to me an old-fashioned anarchist—and not popular. He +dropped out of sight several years ago. I presumed he was dead."</p> + +<p>They soon had the new equipment installed and again began exploring +the wave bands, beginning with the comparatively lengthy ones and +working down into those only slightly longer than light. It was +tedious work, but all were by now as adept as Jack in combing the +ether and their task progressed rapidly. Despite the labor, however, +nothing could be heard. There was only the universal, breathless +silence. At times they moved to the commercial bands and tried to pick +up the stations they had heard on the previous day, but even there +they met with failure.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">B</span>y the evening of the third day they had left the wave bands which +could be measured in meters and were exploring those strange and +almost wholly uncharted depths of the ether which must be calculated +in centimeters. There at last luck favored them. It was Jack who +caught a strange pulsating tone on the three-centimeter band. It rose +and fell, rose and fell, then died away like the keening of a lost +soul.</p> + +<p>"Listen," he whispered. "Plug in here. I've found something."</p> + +<p>June and the doctor followed his instructions. Delicately fingering +the coils, Baron picked up the sound again, only to lose it. Then it +came once more. This time he followed it as it changed to the five +centimeter band. Back and forth it went as though weaving an intricate +and devilish web.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of it?" queried the doctor at last.</p> + +<p>"Don't know." Jack bit his lips. "It's no natural phenomenon, I'll +swear. Somebody is manipulating a broadcasting station of terrific +power not far from here and playing with that wave as a helmsman +brings a sailing ship into the wind and lets her pay off again."</p> + +<p>"What do we do now?" The little chemist, finding his theory apparently +confirmed, was at a loss. "Could we wreck that station?"</p> + +<p>"Fat chance!" The engineer laughed bitterly as he reached for a +cigarette. "Whoever has conceived that bit of hellishness is well +guarded. The three of us wouldn't have a ghost of a show. What I can't +understand is—"</p> + +<p>"No use talking about theories now." Manthis sat down, crushed. +Dropping his head in his bands, he pulled his few hairs as though that +might drag out an idea. "What's to be done? Do you realise that we +hold more responsibility than ever man has held before? Caesar! +Napoleon! They were pikers. We have to save a world."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">S</span>ilence greeted his outburst. The scratching of a match as June lit a +cigarette sounded like an explosion. Then the smoke eddied undisturbed +while the three stared vacantly into space, trying to think.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't we"—the girl swallowed hesitantly as she realized her +ignorance of radio engineering—"couldn't we interfere with that wave? +Interfere with the wave which already is breaking up the thought +waves. Cancel its power. Oh, Jack, you must know what I mean."</p> + +<p>"With this dinky, five-kilowatt station? We couldn't reach Yonkers +against the power they've got. By Jove!" He leaped to his feet as a +new thought struck him. "Maybe we could just wake up New York. Get +help from the police then! Smash that other station afterwards!"</p> + +<p>"But we don't know whether interference would break the spell," +interposed the practical doctor. "And it will take a lot of practise +to follow that wave. It jumps back and forth like a grasshopper."</p> + +<p>"And if we don't do it right the first time, whoever is operating that +station will be down on us like a ton of brick," admitted Jack.</p> + +<p>"Let's get the child we saved," suggested June. "We can bring her up +here. Then we'll need only a little power, just enough to be effective +in this room, to bring her to life if we can. They wouldn't hear our +wave."</p> + +<p>"Great!" Jack bent over and kissed her. "You're a real help. I'll be +back in a minute." He dashed out. Soon they heard his step on the +stairs and he reappeared, tenderly bearing his golden-haired burden.</p> + +<p>"Now, June," he commanded briskly, "place her in a comfortable +position on the work table while I get ready." He began arranging +equipment and connecting it with the bank of storage batteries.</p> + +<p>"Shall I adjust a headset for her?" asked the impatient doctor.</p> + +<p>"Be yourself!" Jack placed a crooked vacuum tube near the child's head +and clamped two flat electrodes on her temples. "This wave must act +directly on the brain. The sense of hearing has nothing to do with it.</p> + +<p>"All right, Sleeping Beauty." He stretched the kinks out of his aching +back. "Let's see what we can do for you. Pardon me, Doctor, if I +seemed rude. This is ticklish work. Pick up the outside wave for me. +Thanks. Now I've got our dinky sending station set on the same wave +length at a different frequency. It's adjusted so that as I keep in +touch through this tuning coil, our wave will fluctuate over the same +path as the other. It should take six or eight hours to overcome the +effect on her, I judge. Here we go. June, you'd better get yourself +and your dad some food. Doctor, you examine the kid from time to time. +In an hour or so June can relieve me."</p> + +<p>He pressed a switch. The tubes filled with a green glow.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>wo hours passed, and the sun was sinking behind the trees of the park +in a bloody haze when Jack at last signaled for June to handle the +dials. For a time he guided her slim fingers. Then, as she caught the +trick, he rose and stretched his cramped muscles.</p> + +<p>"Don't lose the wave for a moment or we'll have to start all over +again," he warned. "Now for dinner!"</p> + +<p>She nodded and, frowning slightly, bent over the dials.</p> + +<p>At that moment there came a heavy knock on the apartment door.</p> + +<p>"Who's that?" gasped Manthis, his face turning grey.</p> + +<p>"Probably Solinski," replied Jack, feeling his spine crawl as he +remembered the moldy Russian. "Fine time he chose for a visit."</p> + +<p>"Shall I let him in?"</p> + +<p>"Don't see what else there is to do."</p> + +<p>"Good evening," cried their guest as Manthis opened the door. "Ah, Dr. +Manthis, I believe. I have heard so much about your work." His hoarse +yet ringing voice made the little man start violently and caused June +to shake her head in annoyance as the sound interfered with the +humming of the vagrant wave. "Sorry I could not come earlier." +Solinski advanced into the laboratory, giving the effect of driving +the chemist before him. "Trying to revive one of the sufferers, I see. +May God aid you in this noble work."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">H</span>e spread the tails of his long coat and sat down. As he talked his +eyes flashed about the room, taking in every detail and at last +fastening on June's fresh beauty like those of a vampire. "Not," he +boomed as he lighted a cigarette, "not that I believe it possible—"</p> + +<p>Catching an agonized glance from Jane, Jack interrupted:</p> + +<p>"You'll have to speak softly, sir. This is ticklish work."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon." The Russian lowered his voice so that it squeaked +piercingly like a rusty hinge. He wrung his hands audibly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we'd better move into the living room," suggested the doctor, +hovering in the background. "There we can talk without interrupting."</p> + +<p>Their guest unfolded joint by joint like a collapsible rule.</p> + +<p>"Of course, if you think I'm spying," he grated.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," protested Jack, although he longed to strike the brute +across the face. "It's just that voices of certain pitches interfere. +Surely you have seen radio operators go all to pieces when spoken to."</p> + +<p>Ungraciously Solinski allowed himself to be ushered into the outer +room. Once there he disposed his lean form on another chair, +unctuously refused a highball, and, forgetting his momentary anger, +soon was deep in a scientific discussion of the problems involved in +revivifying the world.</p> + +<p>He mentioned the nearby radio station but declared that he had been +unable to locate it despite a careful search. Dismissing this he +turned to other topics, displaying a vast knowledge of all departments +of scientific achievement and, despite his depressing personality, +holding his bearer's attention so closely they forgot the passage of +time until the clock struck ten.</p> + +<p>"Time for daily injection," said the doctor. "Do you use Andrev's +solution too, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Naturally," replied the other, lighting one cigarette from the butt +of another.</p> + +<p>Manthis hurried into the laboratory. A few moments later he reappeared +in the doorway and called to Jack in an agitated voice. As the younger +man joined him he closed the door and turned a white face to him.</p> + +<p>"The drug is almost gone," Manthis said. "Didn't you obtain a new +supply?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">"W</span>e—I forgot it," admitted Jack, feeling his own face grow pale. "The +shock of running across Solinski at the laboratory upset me."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's all right, then. It gave me a turn, but we have plenty +of time." The doctor laughed shakily. "Run down to the nearest drug +store. There should be a supply there. Better take a flashlight."</p> + +<p>He pushed open the door, then shrank back. Leaning against the jamb +was the Russian. His manner had changed subtly. His thin lips spread +from ear to ear in a wolfish grin. His fingers clicked like castanets.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he purred. "So you have used up the last of your solution?"</p> + +<p>"What's that to you?" The doctor was gripped by cold unreasoning fear.</p> + +<p>"Only that you will be unable to obtain more. Since my first meeting +with your daughter I have had my men collect all the Cannabis Indica +in the city."</p> + +<p>"Your men!" Manthis was thunderstruck.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, you old fool. Do you think I'm a bungling theorist like +yourself? Who do you think is operating that short-wave station? I am. +Who do you think put the world to sleep? I did. Who do you think will +wake it? I will."</p> + +<p>Solinski's figure appeared to expand. He took deep drafts from his +cigarette. The smoke seemed to impel some terrific force into his +gaunt frame.</p> + +<p>"So it was your voice I heard!" cried Manthis bitterly. "And those +awful tales about you were true. A hashish smoker! A person whose mind +is rotting, in control of the world!" He seemed about to leap at the +other, and his chubby figure, in that attitude, would have seemed +ludicrous if it had not been tragic. "It shall not be!" he shouted.</p> + +<p>"Now see here, Doctor"—Solinski assumed a friendly tone—"you're +making a grave mistake. I have something to offer better than you ever +dreamed of."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Just this. How would you like to be assistant to the King of the +World?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">"C</span>razy already," sneered the doctor, squinting up at his tormentor.</p> + +<p>"Crazy or not, when the world awakes I will be its king."</p> + +<p>"Why, damn you, I thought you were an anarchist and wanted to do away +with kings and governments," sputtered the little man.</p> + +<p>Solinski burst into a gale of fiendish laughter.</p> + +<p>"An anarchist is merely a capitalist without money or power," he +quoted.</p> + +<p>"What do you want of us?" demanded Manthis, playing for time.</p> + +<p>"Very simple. This: I intend soon to begin awakening those who will +serve me, first in New York and then throughout the world. When I +have a skeleton government built up, I will withdraw the wave and +allow the people to revive. Clever, isn't it? Especially for such a +madman as you think me." He snapped his fingers and leered cunningly +at them.</p> + +<p>The doctor choked but Jack's hand on his arm steadied him.</p> + +<p>"You have a very beautiful daughter," resumed their diabolical +visitant.</p> + +<p>"Leave my daughter's name out of this," cried Manthis, recoiling.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. Her charm and ability have greatly impressed me—so +impressed me that I have decided to make her my queen."</p> + +<p>"You scum of the gutter. You filthy beast. I'd die before I'd be a +party to such a thing!" The doctor was beside himself.</p> + +<p>"I consider myself justified," replied the other, taking great delight +in baiting his foe. "The world was never able to govern itself. We +anarchists have bided our time, although overshadowed by communists, +Fascists and such ridiculous experimenters. Now comes our turn. I +shall be the viceroy of God. Under my rule and that of Queen June the +world shall become a second heaven."</p> + +<p>He rolled his eyes upward at those words. As he did so, Jack, who had +been awaiting just such an opportunity, struck him on the jaw.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>he blow would have felled an ox but Solinski merely staggered back a +step and snarled. Before Baron could renew the attack he jerked an +automatic from beneath his coat and leaped to the hall door.</p> + +<p>"You I shall kill," he grinned evilly. "But not now. First you must +taste the horror of sinking into the long sleep. You have no more +drug, nor can you obtain any. Those pitiful storage batteries will be +exhausted by the time you have aroused the child. So you must sleep +unless you have the courage to kill yourself. Doctor, I deeply regret +that this has occurred, but you see that I must let you and June sleep +too. When I have need of you I will recall you. That is all. Farewell. +May God pity you, Baron. I will not."</p> + +<p>He sprang through the door and, the tails of his black coat flapping +like the wings of a gigantic bat, vanished down the stairs.</p> + +<p>Manthis slammed the door and locked it, then leaned weakly against the +panels and wiped his round face. His hands shook pitifully.</p> + +<p>"This then is the end," he whispered hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"Is there none of the drug left?" Jack shook him out of his lethargy.</p> + +<p>"Enough for a half portion for all of us," sighed the doctor. "But +what use of that? Better we poisoned ourselves now and escaped that +demon."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense. A half portion means twelve hours of life. In that time I +can rig up the big transmitter. Perhaps there is still time to revive +New York. Solinski won't know we have a generator until we turn on the +power. Quick. Poor June must be nearly frightened to death at our +shouting."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">B</span>ut they found the girl sitting tense and jubilant at the controls.</p> + +<p>"Father! Jack!" she cried as the door opened. "It's working. I saw her +move. That means we may be able to revive the world!" Her face was +streaked with tears.</p> + +<p>"Her heart's beating," whispered the doctor, feeling the child's +pulse. "Slow but steady. She'll regain consciousness any moment now."</p> + +<p>"No time to wait." Disregarding June's cry of protest Jack stripped +off the electrodes. "We must get the big machine working."</p> + +<p>"But the little thing will die again," cried June, throwing herself on +her knees beside the tot. "I didn't think you could be so cruel."</p> + +<p>"Solinski has cut off our drug supply," explained Manthis gently. +"He's operating the other station. Don't blame Jack. We must work +fast."</p> + +<p>"You mean that Russian is responsible for all this?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, child. But maybe we can defeat him yet. Don't lose courage. Now +I must go and prepare what's left of the drug. We're overdue for it +now."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Jack was busy running leads from the generator room, +connecting banks of tubes, stringing an aerial on the terrace.</p> + +<p>"Twelve hours! Twelve hours!" he muttered. "Just time to make it if +the doctor's calculations are correct. June, hand me those pliers, but +be careful of the wires. I haven't time to insulate them. When we +start the dynamo they'll be carrying twelve thousand volts."</p> + +<p>"But won't Solinski and his men come back and kill us?" For the first +time the full weight of despair descended upon her brave spirit.</p> + +<p>"Probably. Does your father have a revolver?"</p> + +<p>"I—I think so."</p> + +<p>"Find out." Jack connected a loading coil with deft fingers. "Then go +down to a sporting goods store and get some ammunition. If there are +any shotguns in the place bring two back with plenty of buckshot +shells. I don't think we're being watched yet, but if you're attacked, +run for it."</p> + +<p>Noting she looked hurt at his abruptness, he kissed her quickly.</p> + +<p>"Sorry, darling. Every second counts. Run along, like a good girl."</p> + +<p>She smiled for the first time in a long while and patted his hand.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">W</span>hen she returned, two shotguns and several boxes of shells held like +wood in her bent arms, the generator was sparkling merrily. The +gasoline engine barked steadily and the vacuum tubes glowed green.</p> + +<p>Manthis came in at that moment and injected all the remaining drug as +Jack gave crisp orders. Automatically the engineer had taken command.</p> + +<p>"I'll get things going and handle the dials until Solinski sends his +rats down on us. June, you watch the street door. Run up at the first +sign of an attack. After that you'll take my place and hold it, no +matter what happens, until we succeed or are killed. The doctor and I +will go downstairs when you come up, and hold them off or retreat +slowly. Thank heaven we can command both the front and rear stairways +from the halls. Now doctor, watch the circuit breaker. I'm going to +throw on full power."</p> + +<p>As he advanced the rheostat the tubes glowed brighter, bathing the +room in unearthly light. Jack adjusted his headset, and smiled up at +June. She kissed him bravely before hurrying to her dangerous post.</p> + +<p>Once more he sat listening to that whining, fluctuating wave. The +engineer's thoughts wavered between speculations on the future, fond +memories of June and impatience with the dragging hours. Would nothing +ever happen? Through the earphones now came a jangling, agonized +whine, as if the two antagonistic waves were endowed with life and +actually struggling in the ether.</p> + +<p>From time to time his glance wandered to the child, who, having +obtained a head start through her preliminary treatment, now was +stirring fretfully.</p> + +<p>Slowly the time plodded by. Jack smoked cigarette after cigarette in +an effort to fight off the drowsiness which loaded his eyelids with +lead.</p> + +<p>It must have been three o'clock when a whimper from the divan apprised +them that the child at last had awakened.</p> + +<p>"Where's mama?" She blinked into the glare. "I've lost my mama."</p> + +<p>"There, there, honey," soothed the doctor, stopping his pacing up and +down the room and picking her up. "Your mama had to go away for +awhile. She'll be back any minute. Let's go find a drink of water. And +I've something for you to play with too." Gently he carried her into +June's bedroom.</p> + +<p>Soon he reappeared and patted Jack on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Our first victory," he said in a broken voice. "She's in perfect +condition and sleeping naturally now. I gave her one of June's old +dolls to play with." He sighed and collapsed into the nearest chair. +"I'm almost dead with the strain of it. Do you think there's a +chance?"</p> + +<p>"Three more hours should turn the trick. I don't understand why +Solinski—"</p> + +<p>The crash of a shotgun, coming faint but clear from the street below, +brought him up short. The shot was answered by a volley of rifle fire.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">J</span>ack almost lost the wave in his excitement, but regained it with a +desperate twist of the wrist. No time for nerves now. He must be calm!</p> + +<p>"Go down and hold them until June can get back to relieve me," he +ordered. "Hurry. They may rush her any moment."</p> + +<p>The doctor seemed ten years younger as he thrust a revolver into his +pocket, snatched a shotgun from behind the door and ran out.</p> + +<p>The commotion had awakened the child, who started whimpering, adding +further to Jack's distractions. Yet he managed, in spite of ghastly +mental pictures of June being torn to pieces by her attackers, to keep +his hands steady.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later she slipped into the room and laid her cold cheek +against his before taking her place at the instruments.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," she added. "I don't think they'll attack in the +dark. There are five of them. I'm sure I wounded or killed one. They +weren't expecting a guard. I left the gun with father. He's behind the +cashier's desk." Then, all her courage evaporating, she turned an +appealing, little girl face toward her lover. "Don't let yourself be +killed, Jack. I'd die too."</p> + +<p>"June, you're wonderful," he whispered. "I didn't know there was a +girl alive as brave as you. Good-by. No matter what happens, keep the +wave in tune." He kissed her tenderly, trying not to think he had done +so for the last time, and hurried out.</p> + +<p>The stairs were black as the inside of a tomb. Once he stumbled over +the body of a charwoman and came near falling headlong.</p> + +<p>"Nothing's happened since that first volley," whispered Manthis when +Jack slipped into the cage. "They're holding off for dawn. Look!" his +voice wavered. "Was that a face at the window?" He fired wildly. Glass +tinkled.</p> + +<p>"Easy," warned Baron. "Don't waste ammunition. Besides, if you get +this place full of smoke they'll jump us."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">D</span>awn was painting the windows gray when the assault began. Their first +warning came when a small object was tossed into the lobby. It +exploded in a cloud of white vapor.</p> + +<p>"Tear gas," yelled Jack. "Back to the stairs." They ran for cover, +weeping and choking.</p> + +<p>Then began a slow retreat up the stairways, Jack guarding the front +and Manthis the back passages. At first it was a simple matter for +their enemies to toss tear bombs through the fire doors, then, +protected by respirators, capture another floor. But as the light +increased this became more and more hazardous. Twice a spray of +buckshot laid a Solinski man low.</p> + +<p>"He hasn't many men available," called Jack as the attack slackened. +"But watch out. His time's about up. Hey, look at that woman!" A +white-uniformed maid, whom he remembered having seen lying in the same +spot every time he climbed the stairs, had stirred weakly, as though +about to wake.</p> + +<p>It was their glance at the sleeping form which undid them. When they +looked up both fire doors were open and helmeted figures were emerging +from them.</p> + +<p>The shotguns roared. Two of their attackers collapsed, but the others +came on. Before there was time for another shot they were at close +quarters. Standing back to back, Manthis and Jack clubbed their guns +and held their ground.</p> + +<p>The fact that Solinski and his men wore respirators handicapped them +immensely, so that the two defenders kept a cleared circle about them.</p> + +<p>One of the attackers, more daring than the rest, leaped forward to +engage the engineer. He collapsed with a crushed skull.</p> + +<p>Then, when victory seemed in their grasp, luck turned. At Jack's next +blow the stock of his weapon parted from the barrel, leaving him +almost defenseless. At the same time Manthis slipped and collapsed +from a knife thrust.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">J</span>ack was left alone to face three enemies and would have been killed +within the minute had not Solinski, recalling the little time he had +left to stop the interfering wave, deserted his comrades and sprinted +for the laboratory.</p> + +<p>The seeming defection of their chief threw the other two attackers +into momentary confusion. Before they could recover, Jack knocked one +out with the gun barrel, then came a flying tackle at the other.</p> + +<p>But he had caught a tartar. His remaining enemy was a gigantic Negro. +Recovering from his surprise the latter lifted high a glittering knife +to finish his disarmed foe. Jack snatched at the uplifted arm—missed!</p> + +<p>A revolver cracked. The hooded Negro staggered, then crashed forward.</p> + +<p>"Remembered my pistol just in time," gasped the doctor from the floor. +"Don't bother about me. I'm all right. Stop Solinski, for God's sake."</p> + +<p>Although his lungs seemed bursting Baron turned and flew up the +stairs. Being familiar with every turn, he gained on the Russian and +caught sight of the dreadful black coat-tails as his enemy burst +through to the twentieth floor. The locked door of the apartment +baffled him only a moment. Stepping back, Solinski hurled his giant +frame against the panels. They splintered and crashed inward. But the +delay allowed Jack to catch up.</p> + +<p>He leaped on the Russian's back. Locked together they reeled into the +living room. For a fleeting moment Jack saw June sitting rigidly at +the instruments. Her eyes were starting from their sockets but her +hands were steady.</p> + +<p>"I warned you to kill yourself," Solinski's voice rose in a screaming +whisper through the respirator. "Now I will do it." Displaying the +strength of madness he hurled Jack from him. Losing all control of his +limbs, the younger man flew across the room and demolished the divan +in his fall. But the thought of what Solinski would do to June +brought him back to the attack.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f1">T</span>he fury of their struggle wrecked the living room. Both bled from +numerous wounds. One of the Russian's bleak eyes closed under a +well-directed blow, but otherwise he seemed unaffected. Jack grappled +again and realized his mistake as he was caught in a bone-cracking +grip and forced into the laboratory.</p> + +<p>Baron felt a rib snap. A sweat of agony broke out over his body. +Holding his enemy helpless the invader worked his way toward the work +table. They bumped against it, making the equipment totter perilously. +Solinski released his grip, snatched a bottle of distilled water and +swung.</p> + +<p>Jack felt his head explode. The room went dark. But in his +semi-consciousness he remembered he must not let the Russian reach +that switch. As he slid slowly to the floor, he grasped the other's +legs.</p> + +<p>The drug fiend tried to kick free, stumbled, struck the table with his +hips. Throwing out his arms to regain his balance he plunged one hand +among the naked cables which led from the generator to the +transformers and tubes.</p> + +<p>A blinding flash of light and the scream of a soul in torment +followed. As a nauseating odor of burning flesh filled the room, the +Russian was hurled backward like a rubber ball. He struck the window +which overlooked the park, crashed through the large panel and fell!</p> + +<p>June sat as though hypnotised, forcing herself to manipulate those +dials.</p> + +<p>Jack crawled to the window and watched the black body swoop downward +like a wounded bird, the coat flapping like crippled wings. After what +seemed an eon it struck the edge of the subway kiosk, bounced like a +rag doll and sprawled across the pavement.</p> + +<p>Still Jack did not move. Through a haze of his own blood he stared, +the fate of his enemy forgotten. All about the kiosk bodies which had +laid so still for the past week were moving. The little figures, not +much larger than ants from that height, yawned, sat up and stretched +as though it was the commonest thing in the world to take a nap in the +midst of Fifth Avenue. It was as if the last swoop of that batlike +figure had returned them to consciousness.</p> + +<p>"The world is alive! The world is alive!" Baron croaked wildly as he +felt his senses slipping from him. "We have won, June! We have won!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The End of Time, by Wallace West + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 29410-h.htm or 29410-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/1/29410/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and 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 End of Time + +Author: Wallace West + +Release Date: July 15, 2009 [EBook #29410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF TIME *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories March 1933. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + + + The End of Time + + + + By Wallace West + + * * * * * + + + + +[Sidenote: By millions of millions the creatures of earth slow and +drop when their time-sense is mysteriously paralyzed.] + + +"There is no doubt of it!" The little chemist pushed steel-bowed +spectacles up on his high forehead and peered at his dinner guest with +excited blue eyes. "Time will come to an end at six o'clock this +morning." + +Jack Baron, young radio engineer at the Rothafel Radio laboratories, +and protege of Dr. Manthis, his host, laughed heartily. + +"What a yarn you spin, Doctor," he said. "Write it for the movies." + +"But it's true," insisted the older man. "Something is paralyzing our +time-sense. The final stroke will occur about daybreak." + +"Bosh! You mean the earth will stop rotating, the stars blink out?" + +"Not at all. Such things have nothing to do with time. You may know +your short waves, but your general education has been sadly +neglected." The scientist picked up a weighty volume. "Maybe this will +explain what I mean. It's from Immanuel Kant's 'Critique of Pure +Reason.' Listen: + + 'Time is not something which subsists of itself, or which + inheres in things as an objective determination, and + therefore, remains, when abstraction is made of the + subjective conditions of the intuition of things. For in + the former case it would be something real, yet without + presenting to any power of perception any real object. In + the latter case, as an order of determination inherent in + things themselves, it could not be antecedent to things, as + their condition, nor discerned or intuited by means of + synthetical propositions _a priori_. But all this is quite + possible when we regard time as merely the subjective + condition under which all our intuitions take place.' + +"There. Does that make it clear?" + +"Clear as mud," grinned Baron. "Kant is too deep for me." + +"I'll give you another proof," snapped Manthis. "Look at your watch." + +The other drew out his timepiece. Slowly his face sobered. + +"Why, I can't see the second hand," he exclaimed. "It's just a blur!" + +"Exactly! Now look at the minute hand. Can you see it move?" + +"Yes, quite clearly." + +"What time is it?" + +[Illustration: _A few remained standing like statues._] + +"Half past one. Great Scott! So that's why you spun that yarn." Baron +hoisted his six feet one out of the easy chair. "It's way past your +bedtime. Didn't mean to keep you up." He stared again at his watch as +if it had betrayed him. "It seems we just finished dinner. I must have +dozed off...." + +"Nonsense," sniffed Manthis. "You arrived at eight o'clock--an hour +late. You and I and my daughter had dinner. Then the two of us came in +here. We smoked a cigarette or two. Now it's half-past one. Do you +need more proof?" + +"Your theory's all wet somewhere," the younger man protested with a +shaky laugh. "If my watch isn't broken, time must be speeding up, not +stopping." + +"That comes from depending on your senses instead of your +intelligence. Think a minute. If the watch seems running double speed +that would indicate that your perception of its movements had slowed +down fifty per cent." + +Baron sank back into his chair, leaned forward and gripped his curly +black hair with trembling fingers. He felt dizzy and befuddled. + +"June," called the doctor. Then to the agitated youth he added: "Watch +my daughter when she comes in if you still think I'm crazy." + +As he spoke the door flew open and a slim, golden-haired girl shot +into the room like a motion picture character in one of those comedies +which is run double speed. Jack's eyes could hardly follow her +movements. + +She came behind her father and threw one slim arm about his shoulders. +She spoke, but her usually throaty voice was only a high-pitched +squeak. + +"Can't understand you, dear," interrupted her father. "Write it down." + +"June is using a drug which I prepared to keep her time sense normal," +Manthis explained as the girl's pen raced over a pad. "That's why she +disappeared after dinner. I wanted you to get the full effect. Now +read this." + +"The deadline is approaching," the girl's message read. "You'd better +take your injection now. It is 2:30 A.M." + +"All right, prepare the hypodermics," directed the chemist. He had to +repeat this in a falsetto voice before June understood. "Make one for +Jack too." + +June went out at express-train speed. + +Baron glanced at his watch again. The minute hand was moving with the +speed at which the second hand usually traveled. Three fifteen +already! + +When he looked up June was in the room again with two hypodermic +needles. Quickly she removed her father's coat and made the injection. + +"Let her fix you up too, boy, unless you want to become a graven +image," commanded Manthis. His voice, which started at the ordinary +pitch, went up like a siren at the end as the drug took effect. +Dazedly Jack held out his arm. + + * * * * * + +The sting of the needle was followed by a roaring in his ears like a +hundred Niagaras. The room seemed to pitch and quiver. Staring down at +the watch he still clutched, Jack saw the hands slow down and at last +resume their accustomed pace. Gradually the unpleasant sensations died +away. + +"That was a close shave," commented the doctor, drawing a long breath. +"I wouldn't have waited so long, except that I wanted to experience +the sensation of coming back from the edge of the infinite. Not very +nice! Like being pulled out of a whirlpool. It's 4:30 now. Took us an +hour to return to normal, although it seemed only minutes. We have an +hour and a half before the end. June, have you noticed anything +unusual on the streets?" + +"Yes," whispered his daughter, her usually piquant face pinched and +white. "I've been watching from the balcony. It's dreadful. The people +creep about like things in a nightmare." + +Manthis tried to reassure her. On his face was a great sadness which +was, however, overshadowed by a greater scientific curiosity. + +"There's nothing we can do for them now," he said. "But we must learn +all we can. Let's go down and watch the city die." + +They descended in an automatic elevator and hurried through the hotel +lobby. The lights of Fifth Avenue gleamed as brightly as ever. The +streets near the lower end of Central Park still were crowded. But +such crowds! They moved with infinite langour. Each step required many +seconds. + +Yet the people apparently did not know that anything unusual was +happening. Many perhaps were puzzled because their watches seemed to +be misbehaving but this did not stop their conversation as they +traveled home from theaters or night clubs. Two white-haired men +passed by, engaged in a discussion of business affairs. Their voices +were pitched so low that they were almost inaudible to the trio of +watchers, while their gestures looked like the slow waving of the +antennae of deep sea plants. + + * * * * * + +"My God, man!" cried Baron, at last awakening from his horror-stricken +silence. "Why didn't you warn the world? This is criminal. If what you +say is true, all these people will become rooted in their tracks at +six o'clock like--like characters from 'The Sleeping Beauty.'" + +"I only discovered the danger a week ago while working out a chemical +formula." Manthis' eyes showed the strain he was enduring. "It was a +very delicate piece of work having to do with experiments I am making +on chlorophyl--quick adjustments, you know. I'd done the thing before +many times, but last week I couldn't mix the ingredients fast enough +to get the necessary reaction. Puzzled, I made further experiments. +The result was that I discovered my perception of time was slowing +down. I tested June and found the same thing. There was but one +conclusion." + +"But the drug we are using. How did you hit on that?" + +"I recalled that such drugs as hashish greatly speed up the time +sense. An addict is able to review his entire past life or plan an +elaborate crime between two heartbeats. So I collected a small supply +of the stuff." + +"But hashish in large doses is deadly, and I've heard that users of it +sooner or later develop homicidal mania--run amuck as they say in +India." + +"True enough," admitted the chemist, "but Andrev, the Russian, you +know, recently worked out a formula to neutralize the deadly effects +of the drug but retain its time-expanding effect for medical purposes. +I've added that to the pure drug. There isn't enough of it in New York +to keep all these people normal for five minutes. Why should I have +frightened the poor things?" + +He relapsed into silence and the others found no heart to ask further +questions as they watched the coming of the end of a world. The +procession of passers-by had thinned somewhat by now. The street +lights had grown dim. There was a look of increasing puzzlement on the +faces of the people who remained. Something was wrong. They knew not +what. + + * * * * * + +Floating along the sidewalk like a figure in a slow motion picture +came a tiny tot of three. She was sobbing. Great tears formed with +painful slowness and slid down her flushed cheeks. + +"She's lost," exclaimed June. "Here, darling, I'll find your mama." + +She picked up the child and looked up and down the street. The mother +was not in sight. Automatically she turned to a policeman who stood +nearby. + +"Officer," she said quickly, "this girl is lost. Will you...?" + +She stiffened in dismay. The policeman was staring through her as if +his eyes had not registered her approach. Slowly his gaze came into +focus. A puzzled look came over his Irish face. He spoke. It was only +a blurred rumble. + +"What can I do for her, Father?" June cried, turning away from the +officer in despair. "She's dying. See? Couldn't we give her some of +the drug?" + +"There's only enough for us," her father replied firmly. + +"But she'll be quite dead in an hour!" + +"I'm not so sure of that. Perhaps only in a state resembling +catalepsy. We must wait. Jack, take her into the lobby. Put her on a +sofa there." + +Dawn was paling the blue-black sky as the radio engineer returned. The +street lights fluttered fitfully and at last died. The streets had +become deserted although groups still eddied slowly about the subway +kiosks. + +"Five forty-five," whispered Manthis. "The end should come any +moment." + +As he spoke a white-garbed street sweeper, who had been leaning on his +broom at the curb ever since the onlookers had reached the sidewalk, +decided to move on at last. With infinite slowness his foot came up. +He poised, swung forward, then, the universal paralysis overcoming +him, remained in a strangely ludicrous position for a moment before +crashing downward on his face. + +As far as they could see in the semidarkness, others were falling. A +few, balanced with feet wide apart, remained standing like statues. +Those who collapsed writhed slowly a time or two and were still. + +After the thudding of the bodies had ended the silence became ghastly. +Not an awakening bird twittered in the trees of Central Park. Not a +sheep bleated in the inclosure. Except for their own breathing and the +sighing of the wind, not a sound! Then a faraway clock boomed six +notes. The noise made them start and turn pale faces toward each +other. + +"Come," said the doctor heavily. "It's all over. We might as well go +up. We'll have to walk. All power will be off. Twenty stories!" + + * * * * * + +The lobby of the Hotel Atchison, on the roof of which the penthouse +apartment was located, was empty now except for a few clerks and +bellboys. These sat with bowed heads before their grills or on their +benches as if they had merely succumbed to the unpardonable sin of +sleeping on duty. But they did not breathe. + +June clung to her father's arm as they crossed noiselessly over the +heavy carpet. + +"The city will be a charnel house when these bodies start to +decompose." Baron hesitated. "Shouldn't we get out of town while there +is a chance?" + +Manthis shook his head. "No. I'm convinced these people aren't dead. +They're simply outside of time. Change cannot affect them. If I'm not +mistaken they will remain just the same indefinitely." + +"But there will be fires throughout the city." + +"Not many. The electricity is off. The day is warm so no furnaces are +going. Not even a rat is left to nibble matches, for the animals must +be affected in the same way that humans are. The world is asleep." + + * * * * * + +After mounting interminable stairs they regained the apartment and +went out on the balcony. It was full daylight now but not a +smoke-plume trailed from tall chimneys. Not a bird was on the wing. +Elevated trains stood on their tracks, passengers and guards asleep +inside. + +"I still don't understand," muttered Baron. "The sun comes up. The +wind blows. How can that be if there is no time? Might this not be +some plague?" + +"In a way you are right, boy. It is a plague which has paralyzed man's +sense of time. You have become involved by not remembering Kant's +axiom that time is purely subjective. It exists in the mind only. It +and space are the only ideas inherently in our brains. They allow us +to conduct ourselves among a vast collection of things-in-themselves +which time does not affect." + +"But--" + +"Wait a moment. Granting that time is in the mind rather than in the +outside world, what will happen if the time-sense is paralyzed? Won't +the effect be similar to hypnosis whereby a man is reduced to a +cataleptic state? The thought chain which usually passes ceaselessly +through the brain is halted." + +Seeing that the engineer still looked puzzled, June interposed: + +"It's something like enchantment," she explained. "The old legends are +full of it--the Sleeping Beauty, Brunhilde, Rip Van Winkle. I am +convinced that in ancient times a few persons knew how to draw a fairy +ring about those they wished to injure or protect, placing them thus +outside the reach of time and change. This has now happened the world +over, perhaps through some drift in the ether or germ in the brain. +That is what we must find out so we can solve the mystery and take +steps to reawaken the world--" + +"Perhaps this will help," interrupted Manthis in his turn. "As you +know, all the great scientists--Einstein, Jeans, Pavlov--are convinced +that everything in the universe is a form of vibration. Even thought, +they believe, operates somewhat like a very short radio wave. What if +some agency, either inside or outside the universe, began interfering +on the thought-wave channel?" + +"Granting your supposition,"--Jack was on his own ground +now--"transmission would be impossible on that channel." + +"Exactly! Well, that's what I am convinced is taking place. I'm a +chemist, not an engineer. I've given you the lead. You'll have to do +the rest. Do you think you might locate such interference?" + +"Possibly. I'll do my best." + +"Fine! Of course, if it is coming from outside the stratosphere as the +cosmic rays do, there is no hope. But if someone is broadcasting such +a devilish wave from an earthly station we may have a chance to stop +it. + +"Now, Baron, my boy," he continued, dropping into a more jovial tone +and leading his friend into the laboratory, "you'll have to get busy +if you intend to keep us ticking. This equipment is at your disposal." +He waved toward a newly installed short wave radio transmitter. "Here +are storage batteries, all charged." He opened another door. "I have a +five kilowatt generator installed here. It is operated by a gasoline +engine. If you need other equipment you can raid the Rothafel plant." + + * * * * * + +Returning to the main laboratory he indicated the work table set close +to a great double window overlooking Central Park. + +"Couldn't ask for anything better, could you?" he smiled. "Plenty of +light and air and a view of the city. Look, you can even see those +poor devils lying around the subway kiosk." His face became bleak. +Then he shrugged and tried to throw off his depression. "June and I +will help you as much as we can. We can raid stores for provisions and +hashish. New let's have breakfast." + +The next few days were filled with unending labor for the temporal +castaways. From daybreak until far into the night, with radio +receivers clamped over their ears, the three twisted dials, adjusted +rheostats and listened in on long and short wave bands. But the ether, +which once had pulsated with music and friendly voices, now was +silent, except for static. + +"Makes me think of Sunday mornings when I was a boy," Manthis once +commented. "Only this is more quiet. It gives me the jitters." There +was a note of hysteria in his voice. + +When the doctor's nerves began to quiver in that manner, Baron always +insisted that they all rest. During such recesses they ate, played +cards and helped June with the housework. The younger man was +continually amazed by the calmness with which the girl faced their +desperate situation. Clad in a blue smock which brought out the color +of her eyes, she flitted about the apartment, manufacturing delicious +meals out of canned goods and always having a cheery word when the +others became discouraged. Yet she never would look out the window. + +"I can't bear to see those poor souls lying about like rag dolls," she +explained. "The only thing that keeps me sane is the hope that we may +reawaken them." + + * * * * * + +It was on the evening of the third day that Baron lifted the headset +from his burning ears and admitted failure. + +"We've explored everything but the super-short waves," he sighed. +"I'll have to get equipment from the laboratories before we start on +those." + +June nodded from where she perched on a high stool across the table. +But Manthis did not hear. He was making delicate adjustments on his +receiving set and listening with rapt attention. + +"I've got something," he cried. "Jack. June. Plug in on my panel. +Someone is talking. It's very loud. Must be close." + +Instantly the others did as he ordered, but were able to catch only +the last inflections of a ringing voice. Then silence settled once +more. + +"What did he say," the youngsters cried in one breath. + +"Couldn't understand. Some foreign language." The chemist was furious +with disappointment. "But I'd recognize that voice among a thousand. +We must get in touch with him. Perhaps he can help us. God knows we +need assistance. Quick, Jack. You're an expert. See if you can pick up +a reply." + +Baron leaned over his instruments, heart thumping. The dreadful +loneliness against which he had been fighting was broken. Others were +alive! + +Minutes passed and the evening light died away. They were too excited +to strike a light. Shadows crept out of the corners and surrounded +them. At last a faint voice grew in their ears. But again the words +were unintelligible. + +"Sounds a little like Greek," puzzled the girl, "but it isn't." + +Baron adjusted the direction finder and made scribbled calculations. + +"Coming from the southeast and far away," he breathed. + +"I caught a word then," gasped the doctor. "'Ganja,' it was." + +"What does that tell us?" snapped Jack, his nerves jumping. + +"Ganja is the Hindu word for hashish, that's all. My Lord, man, don't +you understand? The station is in India. Those who operate it are +using Andrev's solution as we are. I--" + +"Listen!" shouted Jack. + + * * * * * + +There was a grinding and clashing in the receivers. Then a new voice, +harsh and strained with excitement, almost burst their eardrums. + +"Beware! Beware!" it screamed. "Do not trust him. He is a devil and +has put the world asleep. His mind is rotten with hashish. He is a +demon from--" Then came a dull, crunching sound. The voice screamed +and died away. + +In the darkened laboratory the faces of the three listeners stood out +like ovals of white cardboard. + +"What do you make of that?" stammered Baron at last. + +"It looks as if the only persons alive, in New York at least, are +hashish addicts--the most debased and murderous of drug fiends." The +doctor stopped, his eyes dilating with horror. June crept close to him +and threw an arm around his shaking shoulders. "Can't you see? Their +time-sense expanded too. Like us they were unaffected. But unlike us +they use the pure drug. Hashish smokers are without exception +homicidal maniacs, vicious criminals. God!" + +"Are they responsible for the end of time?" queried Jack. + +"I don't know. Perhaps some master mind among them is back of it--some +engineering wizard who has succumbed to the drug so recently, or who +has such a strong constitution that his intelligence has not been +destroyed." + +The little doctor dragged off his headset, disarranging his sparse +gray hair. His face was tired and worn but his jaw thrust forward +pugnaciously. + +"We're making headway," he cried. "We know the probable author of the +catastrophe is a drug addict and that he is located nearby. We know he +has no scruples, for the man who warned us undoubtedly was killed. And +I'm convinced those extremely short wave bands hold the secret. Let's +knock off for the day. We look like ghosts. To-morrow morning you and +June get what equipment you need from across the river. I'll stay here +on guard. You'd better raid a drug-store and get some more of our +life-saver, too. It's listed under Cannabis Indica." + + * * * * * + +The next morning dawned clear and cold. It was early October and there +was a chill in the apartment. Baron swung his legs over the edge of +the davenport in the living room and stared out at the frost-covered +trees of Central Park. The leaves were falling before the brisk wind +and forming little eddying mounds over the forms of those lying about +the streets. Jack shivered at the thought of the millions and millions +of victims of the disaster who littered the Earth. They seemed to +accuse him of still being alive. Well, if Manthis was right, perhaps +all could be revived before winter set in. + +June was singing as he and the doctor came to breakfast. Apparently +she wished to forget the events of the previous night, so they laughed +and joked as though they intended to go on a picnic rather than across +a dead city. + +The hotel lobby was as they last had seen it when they descended. The +bellboys still nodded on their benches. A travelling salesman was +hunched over a week-old Times as if he would awake in a few minutes, +glance about guiltily and resume his reading. The child they had +rescued still lay on the divan. Her golden hair framed her cheeks like +a halo. One arm was thrown above her head. She seemed ready to awake, +though she had not breathed for days. + +"It all makes me feel so lonely," whispered June, clinging to the +engineer's arm. "I want to cry--or whistle to keep up my courage." + +"Don't worry," Jack replied softly, patting her hand and speaking with +more assurance than he felt. "We'll find a way out." + +She squeezed his arm and smiled at him with new courage. For months, +in fact ever since his first visit to the Manthis apartment, Baron had +admired the doctor's charming daughter. Although nothing had been +said of love between them they often had gone to a dance or the +theater together, while a firm friendship had been cemented. Now their +closer association and the unflinching bravery which she showed was +ripening this into a stronger bond. + + * * * * * + +They went out into the crisp morning, stepped across the body of a +street sweeper who lay in the gutter, and entered the doctor's +automobile. Through the silent city they drove, Baron watching +carefully to avoid striking stalled cars or grotesquely sprawling +bodies. + +There was a tangle of wrecked automobiles in the center of the +Queensboro Bridge and they were forced to push them apart to get +through. While they were engaged in this arduous work, a drifting +ferry bumped into a pier, shaking the dreaming captain into a +semblance of life at the wheel. + +"I used to like fairy tales," moaned June. "They're dreadful, really." + +She clung to him like a frightened child. He drew her close and kissed +her. + +"I love you, June," he whispered, as though fearful that the sleeping +drivers of the tangled cars might overhear. "Don't be afraid." + +"I'm not--now," she smiled through eyes filled with tears. "I've loved +you for months, Jack. Whatever happens, we have each other." + +He helped her back into the car and drove on in silence. At last the +Rothafel plant gloomed before them, forbidding as an Egyptian tomb. +With a feeling that he was entering some forbidden precinct, Jack led +the way to his office. Somehow, without its usual bustle and bright +lights, it seemed alien. + +Once inside he forgot his hesitation and set about collecting +equipment--queerly shaped neon tubes, reflectors, coils, electrodes. +Soon there was a pile of material glinting on top of his desk. + +They were exploring a deep cabinet with the aid of a flashlight when a +strange clicking sound made them whirl simultaneously. In a corner of +the room a deeper blot of shadow caught their eyes. Jack snapped on +the flash. In the small circle of light a long, cadaverous face +appeared. Thin lips were drawn back over wide-spaced yellow teeth. +Black eyes stared unwinkingly into the light. The flash wavered as the +engineer tried to get his nerves under control. + +"It's nothing," he assured the trembling girl. "A night watchman +caught as he was making his rounds, probably. Don't get excited." He +wet his lips. + +"He's alive!" screamed June. "The eyelids! They moved!" + + * * * * * + +"Yes, I'm alive," boomed a hoarse voice. "I thought I was the only man +God had spared. Pardon me for frightening you. I was so +thunderstruck...." + +The stranger stepped forward. He was dressed in a long black topcoat, +high collar and string tie. The clicking noise was explained when he +rubbed his long white hands together, making the knuckles pop like +tiny firecrackers. + +"Ivan Solinski, at your service." He smiled with what evidently was +intended to be warmth, again showing those rows of teeth like picket +fences. "I suppose we're all here on the same mission: to find a +solution for the mystery of the world's paralysis." The apparition lit +a long and bloated cigarette and through the acrid smoke surveyed them +quizzically. + +"I'm Jack Baron, formerly on the staff here, and this is June Manthis, +daughter of Dr. Frank Manthis, head of the chemical research +department." The engineer winced as Solinski enfolded his hand in a +clammy grip. + +"Ah yes, I know the doctor by hearsay. A great scientist. He has a +lovely daughter"--bowing deeply to June as he let his beady eyes +wander over her face and figure. "Perhaps we can join forces, although +I must admit I have abandoned hope. It is God's will." He rolled his +eyes toward heaven, then riveted them once more upon June. + +"Why, certainly." Jack was striving to overcome his growing dislike. +"We'll be driving back in a few minutes. Would you care to come with +us?" + +"No." The pupilless eyes skittered toward Baron for a moment. "I know +the doctor's address. I will come to visit you soon. Now I must be +going." Solinski turned as if to depart, then strode to the desk and +looked down at the mass of equipment. "Ah, super-short wave tubes, I +see. Very clever." His dexterous fingers lingered over them a moment. +Then he bowed and was gone. + + * * * * * + +The two remained staring at the empty doorway. + +"I--I wish he'd been dead--sleeping," whispered June at last, twisting +her handkerchief with trembling fingers. "He--I didn't like the way he +kept looking at me." + +"He seemed all right to me." Jack tried to forget his own prejudice. +"He's willing to help us." + +"Might he not be one of the hashish addicts? Those eyes--the pupils +were mere pinpoints--and those evil-smelling cigarettes." + +"Then why should he have offered to help?" puzzled Jack. "He could +have killed us." + +"Nevertheless I hope we've seen the last of him. Are you about +through? Let's get out of this awful place. He looked like a mummy!" + +They drove back to the apartment so completely preoccupied that both +forgot to obtain the drug which the doctor had requested. + +"Yes, I've heard of him," Manthis said after he had been informed of +the encounter. "A naturalized Russian. Used to do quite a bit of +valuable work in various fields of physics. But he was some sort of +radical--seems to me an old-fashioned anarchist--and not popular. He +dropped out of sight several years ago. I presumed he was dead." + +They soon had the new equipment installed and again began exploring +the wave bands, beginning with the comparatively lengthy ones and +working down into those only slightly longer than light. It was +tedious work, but all were by now as adept as Jack in combing the +ether and their task progressed rapidly. Despite the labor, however, +nothing could be heard. There was only the universal, breathless +silence. At times they moved to the commercial bands and tried to pick +up the stations they had heard on the previous day, but even there +they met with failure. + + * * * * * + +By the evening of the third day they had left the wave bands which +could be measured in meters and were exploring those strange and +almost wholly uncharted depths of the ether which must be calculated +in centimeters. There at last luck favored them. It was Jack who +caught a strange pulsating tone on the three-centimeter band. It rose +and fell, rose and fell, then died away like the keening of a lost +soul. + +"Listen," he whispered. "Plug in here. I've found something." + +June and the doctor followed his instructions. Delicately fingering +the coils, Baron picked up the sound again, only to lose it. Then it +came once more. This time he followed it as it changed to the five +centimeter band. Back and forth it went as though weaving an intricate +and devilish web. + +"What do you make of it?" queried the doctor at last. + +"Don't know." Jack bit his lips. "It's no natural phenomenon, I'll +swear. Somebody is manipulating a broadcasting station of terrific +power not far from here and playing with that wave as a helmsman +brings a sailing ship into the wind and lets her pay off again." + +"What do we do now?" The little chemist, finding his theory apparently +confirmed, was at a loss. "Could we wreck that station?" + +"Fat chance!" The engineer laughed bitterly as he reached for a +cigarette. "Whoever has conceived that bit of hellishness is well +guarded. The three of us wouldn't have a ghost of a show. What I can't +understand is--" + +"No use talking about theories now." Manthis sat down, crushed. +Dropping his head in his bands, he pulled his few hairs as though that +might drag out an idea. "What's to be done? Do you realise that we +hold more responsibility than ever man has held before? Caesar! +Napoleon! They were pikers. We have to save a world." + + * * * * * + +Silence greeted his outburst. The scratching of a match as June lit a +cigarette sounded like an explosion. Then the smoke eddied undisturbed +while the three stared vacantly into space, trying to think. + +"Couldn't we"--the girl swallowed hesitantly as she realized her +ignorance of radio engineering--"couldn't we interfere with that wave? +Interfere with the wave which already is breaking up the thought +waves. Cancel its power. Oh, Jack, you must know what I mean." + +"With this dinky, five-kilowatt station? We couldn't reach Yonkers +against the power they've got. By Jove!" He leaped to his feet as a +new thought struck him. "Maybe we could just wake up New York. Get +help from the police then! Smash that other station afterwards!" + +"But we don't know whether interference would break the spell," +interposed the practical doctor. "And it will take a lot of practise +to follow that wave. It jumps back and forth like a grasshopper." + +"And if we don't do it right the first time, whoever is operating that +station will be down on us like a ton of brick," admitted Jack. + +"Let's get the child we saved," suggested June. "We can bring her up +here. Then we'll need only a little power, just enough to be effective +in this room, to bring her to life if we can. They wouldn't hear our +wave." + +"Great!" Jack bent over and kissed her. "You're a real help. I'll be +back in a minute." He dashed out. Soon they heard his step on the +stairs and he reappeared, tenderly bearing his golden-haired burden. + +"Now, June," he commanded briskly, "place her in a comfortable +position on the work table while I get ready." He began arranging +equipment and connecting it with the bank of storage batteries. + +"Shall I adjust a headset for her?" asked the impatient doctor. + +"Be yourself!" Jack placed a crooked vacuum tube near the child's head +and clamped two flat electrodes on her temples. "This wave must act +directly on the brain. The sense of hearing has nothing to do with it. + +"All right, Sleeping Beauty." He stretched the kinks out of his aching +back. "Let's see what we can do for you. Pardon me, Doctor, if I +seemed rude. This is ticklish work. Pick up the outside wave for me. +Thanks. Now I've got our dinky sending station set on the same wave +length at a different frequency. It's adjusted so that as I keep in +touch through this tuning coil, our wave will fluctuate over the same +path as the other. It should take six or eight hours to overcome the +effect on her, I judge. Here we go. June, you'd better get yourself +and your dad some food. Doctor, you examine the kid from time to time. +In an hour or so June can relieve me." + +He pressed a switch. The tubes filled with a green glow. + + * * * * * + +Two hours passed, and the sun was sinking behind the trees of the park +in a bloody haze when Jack at last signaled for June to handle the +dials. For a time he guided her slim fingers. Then, as she caught the +trick, he rose and stretched his cramped muscles. + +"Don't lose the wave for a moment or we'll have to start all over +again," he warned. "Now for dinner!" + +She nodded and, frowning slightly, bent over the dials. + +At that moment there came a heavy knock on the apartment door. + +"Who's that?" gasped Manthis, his face turning grey. + +"Probably Solinski," replied Jack, feeling his spine crawl as he +remembered the moldy Russian. "Fine time he chose for a visit." + +"Shall I let him in?" + +"Don't see what else there is to do." + +"Good evening," cried their guest as Manthis opened the door. "Ah, Dr. +Manthis, I believe. I have heard so much about your work." His hoarse +yet ringing voice made the little man start violently and caused June +to shake her head in annoyance as the sound interfered with the +humming of the vagrant wave. "Sorry I could not come earlier." +Solinski advanced into the laboratory, giving the effect of driving +the chemist before him. "Trying to revive one of the sufferers, I see. +May God aid you in this noble work." + + * * * * * + +He spread the tails of his long coat and sat down. As he talked his +eyes flashed about the room, taking in every detail and at last +fastening on June's fresh beauty like those of a vampire. "Not," he +boomed as he lighted a cigarette, "not that I believe it possible--" + +Catching an agonized glance from Jane, Jack interrupted: + +"You'll have to speak softly, sir. This is ticklish work." + +"I beg your pardon." The Russian lowered his voice so that it squeaked +piercingly like a rusty hinge. He wrung his hands audibly. + +"Perhaps we'd better move into the living room," suggested the doctor, +hovering in the background. "There we can talk without interrupting." + +Their guest unfolded joint by joint like a collapsible rule. + +"Of course, if you think I'm spying," he grated. + +"Not at all," protested Jack, although he longed to strike the brute +across the face. "It's just that voices of certain pitches interfere. +Surely you have seen radio operators go all to pieces when spoken to." + +Ungraciously Solinski allowed himself to be ushered into the outer +room. Once there he disposed his lean form on another chair, +unctuously refused a highball, and, forgetting his momentary anger, +soon was deep in a scientific discussion of the problems involved in +revivifying the world. + +He mentioned the nearby radio station but declared that he had been +unable to locate it despite a careful search. Dismissing this he +turned to other topics, displaying a vast knowledge of all departments +of scientific achievement and, despite his depressing personality, +holding his bearer's attention so closely they forgot the passage of +time until the clock struck ten. + +"Time for daily injection," said the doctor. "Do you use Andrev's +solution too, sir?" + +"Naturally," replied the other, lighting one cigarette from the butt +of another. + +Manthis hurried into the laboratory. A few moments later he reappeared +in the doorway and called to Jack in an agitated voice. As the younger +man joined him he closed the door and turned a white face to him. + +"The drug is almost gone," Manthis said. "Didn't you obtain a new +supply?" + + * * * * * + +"We--I forgot it," admitted Jack, feeling his own face grow pale. "The +shock of running across Solinski at the laboratory upset me." + +"Well, that's all right, then. It gave me a turn, but we have plenty +of time." The doctor laughed shakily. "Run down to the nearest drug +store. There should be a supply there. Better take a flashlight." + +He pushed open the door, then shrank back. Leaning against the jamb +was the Russian. His manner had changed subtly. His thin lips spread +from ear to ear in a wolfish grin. His fingers clicked like castanets. + +"Ah," he purred. "So you have used up the last of your solution?" + +"What's that to you?" The doctor was gripped by cold unreasoning fear. + +"Only that you will be unable to obtain more. Since my first meeting +with your daughter I have had my men collect all the Cannabis Indica +in the city." + +"Your men!" Manthis was thunderstruck. + +"Certainly, you old fool. Do you think I'm a bungling theorist like +yourself? Who do you think is operating that short-wave station? I am. +Who do you think put the world to sleep? I did. Who do you think will +wake it? I will." + +Solinski's figure appeared to expand. He took deep drafts from his +cigarette. The smoke seemed to impel some terrific force into his +gaunt frame. + +"So it was your voice I heard!" cried Manthis bitterly. "And those +awful tales about you were true. A hashish smoker! A person whose mind +is rotting, in control of the world!" He seemed about to leap at the +other, and his chubby figure, in that attitude, would have seemed +ludicrous if it had not been tragic. "It shall not be!" he shouted. + +"Now see here, Doctor"--Solinski assumed a friendly tone--"you're +making a grave mistake. I have something to offer better than you ever +dreamed of." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just this. How would you like to be assistant to the King of the +World?" + + * * * * * + +"Crazy already," sneered the doctor, squinting up at his tormentor. + +"Crazy or not, when the world awakes I will be its king." + +"Why, damn you, I thought you were an anarchist and wanted to do away +with kings and governments," sputtered the little man. + +Solinski burst into a gale of fiendish laughter. + +"An anarchist is merely a capitalist without money or power," he +quoted. + +"What do you want of us?" demanded Manthis, playing for time. + +"Very simple. This: I intend soon to begin awakening those who will +serve me, first in New York and then throughout the world. When I +have a skeleton government built up, I will withdraw the wave and +allow the people to revive. Clever, isn't it? Especially for such a +madman as you think me." He snapped his fingers and leered cunningly +at them. + +The doctor choked but Jack's hand on his arm steadied him. + +"You have a very beautiful daughter," resumed their diabolical +visitant. + +"Leave my daughter's name out of this," cried Manthis, recoiling. + +"Not at all. Her charm and ability have greatly impressed me--so +impressed me that I have decided to make her my queen." + +"You scum of the gutter. You filthy beast. I'd die before I'd be a +party to such a thing!" The doctor was beside himself. + +"I consider myself justified," replied the other, taking great delight +in baiting his foe. "The world was never able to govern itself. We +anarchists have bided our time, although overshadowed by communists, +Fascists and such ridiculous experimenters. Now comes our turn. I +shall be the viceroy of God. Under my rule and that of Queen June the +world shall become a second heaven." + +He rolled his eyes upward at those words. As he did so, Jack, who had +been awaiting just such an opportunity, struck him on the jaw. + + * * * * * + +The blow would have felled an ox but Solinski merely staggered back a +step and snarled. Before Baron could renew the attack he jerked an +automatic from beneath his coat and leaped to the hall door. + +"You I shall kill," he grinned evilly. "But not now. First you must +taste the horror of sinking into the long sleep. You have no more +drug, nor can you obtain any. Those pitiful storage batteries will be +exhausted by the time you have aroused the child. So you must sleep +unless you have the courage to kill yourself. Doctor, I deeply regret +that this has occurred, but you see that I must let you and June sleep +too. When I have need of you I will recall you. That is all. Farewell. +May God pity you, Baron. I will not." + +He sprang through the door and, the tails of his black coat flapping +like the wings of a gigantic bat, vanished down the stairs. + +Manthis slammed the door and locked it, then leaned weakly against the +panels and wiped his round face. His hands shook pitifully. + +"This then is the end," he whispered hoarsely. + +"Is there none of the drug left?" Jack shook him out of his lethargy. + +"Enough for a half portion for all of us," sighed the doctor. "But +what use of that? Better we poisoned ourselves now and escaped that +demon." + +"Nonsense. A half portion means twelve hours of life. In that time I +can rig up the big transmitter. Perhaps there is still time to revive +New York. Solinski won't know we have a generator until we turn on the +power. Quick. Poor June must be nearly frightened to death at our +shouting." + + * * * * * + +But they found the girl sitting tense and jubilant at the controls. + +"Father! Jack!" she cried as the door opened. "It's working. I saw her +move. That means we may be able to revive the world!" Her face was +streaked with tears. + +"Her heart's beating," whispered the doctor, feeling the child's +pulse. "Slow but steady. She'll regain consciousness any moment now." + +"No time to wait." Disregarding June's cry of protest Jack stripped +off the electrodes. "We must get the big machine working." + +"But the little thing will die again," cried June, throwing herself on +her knees beside the tot. "I didn't think you could be so cruel." + +"Solinski has cut off our drug supply," explained Manthis gently. +"He's operating the other station. Don't blame Jack. We must work +fast." + +"You mean that Russian is responsible for all this?" + +"Yes, child. But maybe we can defeat him yet. Don't lose courage. Now +I must go and prepare what's left of the drug. We're overdue for it +now." + +Meanwhile Jack was busy running leads from the generator room, +connecting banks of tubes, stringing an aerial on the terrace. + +"Twelve hours! Twelve hours!" he muttered. "Just time to make it if +the doctor's calculations are correct. June, hand me those pliers, but +be careful of the wires. I haven't time to insulate them. When we +start the dynamo they'll be carrying twelve thousand volts." + +"But won't Solinski and his men come back and kill us?" For the first +time the full weight of despair descended upon her brave spirit. + +"Probably. Does your father have a revolver?" + +"I--I think so." + +"Find out." Jack connected a loading coil with deft fingers. "Then go +down to a sporting goods store and get some ammunition. If there are +any shotguns in the place bring two back with plenty of buckshot +shells. I don't think we're being watched yet, but if you're attacked, +run for it." + +Noting she looked hurt at his abruptness, he kissed her quickly. + +"Sorry, darling. Every second counts. Run along, like a good girl." + +She smiled for the first time in a long while and patted his hand. + + * * * * * + +When she returned, two shotguns and several boxes of shells held like +wood in her bent arms, the generator was sparkling merrily. The +gasoline engine barked steadily and the vacuum tubes glowed green. + +Manthis came in at that moment and injected all the remaining drug as +Jack gave crisp orders. Automatically the engineer had taken command. + +"I'll get things going and handle the dials until Solinski sends his +rats down on us. June, you watch the street door. Run up at the first +sign of an attack. After that you'll take my place and hold it, no +matter what happens, until we succeed or are killed. The doctor and I +will go downstairs when you come up, and hold them off or retreat +slowly. Thank heaven we can command both the front and rear stairways +from the halls. Now doctor, watch the circuit breaker. I'm going to +throw on full power." + +As he advanced the rheostat the tubes glowed brighter, bathing the +room in unearthly light. Jack adjusted his headset, and smiled up at +June. She kissed him bravely before hurrying to her dangerous post. + +Once more he sat listening to that whining, fluctuating wave. The +engineer's thoughts wavered between speculations on the future, fond +memories of June and impatience with the dragging hours. Would nothing +ever happen? Through the earphones now came a jangling, agonized +whine, as if the two antagonistic waves were endowed with life and +actually struggling in the ether. + +From time to time his glance wandered to the child, who, having +obtained a head start through her preliminary treatment, now was +stirring fretfully. + +Slowly the time plodded by. Jack smoked cigarette after cigarette in +an effort to fight off the drowsiness which loaded his eyelids with +lead. + +It must have been three o'clock when a whimper from the divan apprised +them that the child at last had awakened. + +"Where's mama?" She blinked into the glare. "I've lost my mama." + +"There, there, honey," soothed the doctor, stopping his pacing up and +down the room and picking her up. "Your mama had to go away for +awhile. She'll be back any minute. Let's go find a drink of water. And +I've something for you to play with too." Gently he carried her into +June's bedroom. + +Soon he reappeared and patted Jack on the shoulder. + +"Our first victory," he said in a broken voice. "She's in perfect +condition and sleeping naturally now. I gave her one of June's old +dolls to play with." He sighed and collapsed into the nearest chair. +"I'm almost dead with the strain of it. Do you think there's a +chance?" + +"Three more hours should turn the trick. I don't understand why +Solinski--" + +The crash of a shotgun, coming faint but clear from the street below, +brought him up short. The shot was answered by a volley of rifle fire. + + * * * * * + +Jack almost lost the wave in his excitement, but regained it with a +desperate twist of the wrist. No time for nerves now. He must be calm! + +"Go down and hold them until June can get back to relieve me," he +ordered. "Hurry. They may rush her any moment." + +The doctor seemed ten years younger as he thrust a revolver into his +pocket, snatched a shotgun from behind the door and ran out. + +The commotion had awakened the child, who started whimpering, adding +further to Jack's distractions. Yet he managed, in spite of ghastly +mental pictures of June being torn to pieces by her attackers, to keep +his hands steady. + +A few minutes later she slipped into the room and laid her cold cheek +against his before taking her place at the instruments. + +"It's all right," she added. "I don't think they'll attack in the +dark. There are five of them. I'm sure I wounded or killed one. They +weren't expecting a guard. I left the gun with father. He's behind the +cashier's desk." Then, all her courage evaporating, she turned an +appealing, little girl face toward her lover. "Don't let yourself be +killed, Jack. I'd die too." + +"June, you're wonderful," he whispered. "I didn't know there was a +girl alive as brave as you. Good-by. No matter what happens, keep the +wave in tune." He kissed her tenderly, trying not to think he had done +so for the last time, and hurried out. + +The stairs were black as the inside of a tomb. Once he stumbled over +the body of a charwoman and came near falling headlong. + +"Nothing's happened since that first volley," whispered Manthis when +Jack slipped into the cage. "They're holding off for dawn. Look!" his +voice wavered. "Was that a face at the window?" He fired wildly. Glass +tinkled. + +"Easy," warned Baron. "Don't waste ammunition. Besides, if you get +this place full of smoke they'll jump us." + + * * * * * + +Dawn was painting the windows gray when the assault began. Their first +warning came when a small object was tossed into the lobby. It +exploded in a cloud of white vapor. + +"Tear gas," yelled Jack. "Back to the stairs." They ran for cover, +weeping and choking. + +Then began a slow retreat up the stairways, Jack guarding the front +and Manthis the back passages. At first it was a simple matter for +their enemies to toss tear bombs through the fire doors, then, +protected by respirators, capture another floor. But as the light +increased this became more and more hazardous. Twice a spray of +buckshot laid a Solinski man low. + +"He hasn't many men available," called Jack as the attack slackened. +"But watch out. His time's about up. Hey, look at that woman!" A +white-uniformed maid, whom he remembered having seen lying in the same +spot every time he climbed the stairs, had stirred weakly, as though +about to wake. + +It was their glance at the sleeping form which undid them. When they +looked up both fire doors were open and helmeted figures were emerging +from them. + +The shotguns roared. Two of their attackers collapsed, but the others +came on. Before there was time for another shot they were at close +quarters. Standing back to back, Manthis and Jack clubbed their guns +and held their ground. + +The fact that Solinski and his men wore respirators handicapped them +immensely, so that the two defenders kept a cleared circle about them. + +One of the attackers, more daring than the rest, leaped forward to +engage the engineer. He collapsed with a crushed skull. + +Then, when victory seemed in their grasp, luck turned. At Jack's next +blow the stock of his weapon parted from the barrel, leaving him +almost defenseless. At the same time Manthis slipped and collapsed +from a knife thrust. + + * * * * * + +Jack was left alone to face three enemies and would have been killed +within the minute had not Solinski, recalling the little time he had +left to stop the interfering wave, deserted his comrades and sprinted +for the laboratory. + +The seeming defection of their chief threw the other two attackers +into momentary confusion. Before they could recover, Jack knocked one +out with the gun barrel, then came a flying tackle at the other. + +But he had caught a tartar. His remaining enemy was a gigantic Negro. +Recovering from his surprise the latter lifted high a glittering knife +to finish his disarmed foe. Jack snatched at the uplifted arm--missed! + +A revolver cracked. The hooded Negro staggered, then crashed forward. + +"Remembered my pistol just in time," gasped the doctor from the floor. +"Don't bother about me. I'm all right. Stop Solinski, for God's sake." + +Although his lungs seemed bursting Baron turned and flew up the +stairs. Being familiar with every turn, he gained on the Russian and +caught sight of the dreadful black coat-tails as his enemy burst +through to the twentieth floor. The locked door of the apartment +baffled him only a moment. Stepping back, Solinski hurled his giant +frame against the panels. They splintered and crashed inward. But the +delay allowed Jack to catch up. + +He leaped on the Russian's back. Locked together they reeled into the +living room. For a fleeting moment Jack saw June sitting rigidly at +the instruments. Her eyes were starting from their sockets but her +hands were steady. + +"I warned you to kill yourself," Solinski's voice rose in a screaming +whisper through the respirator. "Now I will do it." Displaying the +strength of madness he hurled Jack from him. Losing all control of his +limbs, the younger man flew across the room and demolished the divan +in his fall. But the thought of what Solinski would do to June +brought him back to the attack. + + * * * * * + +The fury of their struggle wrecked the living room. Both bled from +numerous wounds. One of the Russian's bleak eyes closed under a +well-directed blow, but otherwise he seemed unaffected. Jack grappled +again and realized his mistake as he was caught in a bone-cracking +grip and forced into the laboratory. + +Baron felt a rib snap. A sweat of agony broke out over his body. +Holding his enemy helpless the invader worked his way toward the work +table. They bumped against it, making the equipment totter perilously. +Solinski released his grip, snatched a bottle of distilled water and +swung. + +Jack felt his head explode. The room went dark. But in his +semi-consciousness he remembered he must not let the Russian reach +that switch. As he slid slowly to the floor, he grasped the other's +legs. + +The drug fiend tried to kick free, stumbled, struck the table with his +hips. Throwing out his arms to regain his balance he plunged one hand +among the naked cables which led from the generator to the +transformers and tubes. + +A blinding flash of light and the scream of a soul in torment +followed. As a nauseating odor of burning flesh filled the room, the +Russian was hurled backward like a rubber ball. He struck the window +which overlooked the park, crashed through the large panel and fell! + +June sat as though hypnotised, forcing herself to manipulate those +dials. + +Jack crawled to the window and watched the black body swoop downward +like a wounded bird, the coat flapping like crippled wings. After what +seemed an eon it struck the edge of the subway kiosk, bounced like a +rag doll and sprawled across the pavement. + +Still Jack did not move. Through a haze of his own blood he stared, +the fate of his enemy forgotten. All about the kiosk bodies which had +laid so still for the past week were moving. The little figures, not +much larger than ants from that height, yawned, sat up and stretched +as though it was the commonest thing in the world to take a nap in the +midst of Fifth Avenue. It was as if the last swoop of that batlike +figure had returned them to consciousness. + +"The world is alive! The world is alive!" Baron croaked wildly as he +felt his senses slipping from him. "We have won, June! We have won!" + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The End of Time, by Wallace West + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE END OF TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 29410.txt or 29410.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/4/1/29410/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and 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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