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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b2e2bb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #67146 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67146) diff --git a/old/67146-0.txt b/old/67146-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 62e4bd6..0000000 --- a/old/67146-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2524 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man Who Saved the Earth, by Austin Hall - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Man Who Saved the Earth - -Author: Austin Hall - -Release Date: January 11, 2022 [eBook #67146] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Roger Frank and Sue Clark - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO SAVED THE EARTH *** - - - - - - The Man Who Saved the Earth - - by Austin Hall - - - - -[Illustration: Not a sound; the whole works a complicated mass covering -a hundred acres, driving with a silence that was magic. Not a whir nor -friction. Like a living composite body pulsing and breathing the strange -and mysterious force that had been evolved from Huyck’s theory of -kinetics. The four great steel conduits running from the globes down the -side of the mountain. In the center at a point midway between the globes, -a massive steel needle hung on a pivot and pointed directly at the sun.] - - - - - We read of the days when the powers of radium were yet - unknown. It is told us that burns were produced by - incautiously carrying a tube of radium salts in the - pocket. And here in this story we are told of a different - power, opalescence, due to another element. It can destroy - mountains, excavate cavities of immeasurable depths and - kill human beings and animals in multitude. The story - opens with a poor little boy experimenting with a burning - glass. Then he becomes the hero of the story—he studies - and eventually finds himself able to destroy the earth. He - exceeds Archimedes in his power. And he suddenly finds - that he has unlocked a power that threatens this very - destruction. And the story depicts his horror at the - Frankenstein which he had unloosed, and tells of his wild - efforts to save humanity, and of the loss of the cosmic - discoveries of the little newsboy grown up to be a great - scientist. - - - - - CHAPTER I - - THE BEGINNING - - -Even the beginning. From the start the whole thing has the precision -of machine work. Fate and its working—and the wonderful Providence -which watches over Man and his future. The whole thing unerring: the -incident, the work, the calamity, and the martyr. In the retrospect of -disaster we may all of us grow strong in wisdom. Let us go into -history. - -A hot July day. A sun of scant pity, and a staggering street; panting -thousands dragging along, hatless; fans and parasols; the sultry -vengeance of a real day of summer. A day of bursting tires; hot -pavements, and wrecked endeavor, heartaches for the seashore, for -leafy bowers beside rippling water, a day of broken hopes and listless -ambition. - -Perhaps Fate chose the day because of its heat and because of its -natural benefit on fecundity. We have no way of knowing. But we do -know this: the date, the time, the meeting; the boy with the burning -glass and the old doctor. So commonplace, so trivial and hidden in -obscurity! Who would have guessed it? Yet it is—after the creation—one -of the most important dates in the world’s history. - -This is saying a whole lot. Let us go into it and see what it amounts -to. Let us trace the thing out in history, weigh it up and balance it -with sequence. - -Of Charley Huyck we know nothing up to this day. It is a thing which, -for some reason, he has always kept hidden. Recent investigation as to -his previous life and antecedents have availed us nothing. Perhaps he -could have told us; but as he has gone down as the world’s great -martyr, there is no hope of gaining from his lips what we would so -like to know. - -After all, it does not matter. We have the day—the incident, and its -purport, and its climax of sequence to the day of the great disaster. -Also we have the blasted mountains and the lake of blue water which -will ever live with his memory. His greatness is not of warfare, nor -personal ambition; but of all mankind. The wreaths that we bestow upon -him have no doubtful color. The man who saved the earth! - -From such a beginning, Charley Huyck, lean and frail of body, with, -even then, the wistfulness of the idealist, and the eyes of a poet. -Charley Huyck, the boy, crossing the hot pavement with his pack of -papers; the much treasured piece of glass in his pocket, and the sun -which only he should master burning down upon him. A moment out of the -ages; the turning of a straw destined to out-balance all the previous -accumulation of man’s history. - -The sun was hot and burning, and the child—he could not have been more -than ten—cast a glance over his shoulder. It was in the way of -calculation. In the heyday of childhood he was not dragged down by the -heat and weather: he had the enthusiasm of his half-score of years and -the joy of the plaything. We will not presume to call it the spirit of -the scientist, though it was, perhaps, the spark of latent -investigation that was destined to lead so far. - -A moment picked out of destiny! A boy and a plaything. Uncounted -millions of boys have played with glass and the sun rays. Who cannot -remember the little, round-burning dot in the palm of the hand and the -subsequent exclamation? Charley Huyck had found a new toy, it was a -simple thing and as old as glass. Fate will ever be so in her working. - -And the doctor? Why should he have been waiting? If it was not -destiny, it was at least an accumulation of moment. In the heavy -eye-glasses, the square, close-cut beard; and his uncompromising -fact-seeking expression. Those who knew Dr. Robold are strong in the -affirmation that he was the antithesis of all emotion. He was the -sternest product of science: unbending, hardened by experiment, and -caustic in his condemnation of the frailness of human nature. - -It had been his one function to topple over the castles of the -foolish; with his hard-seeing wisdom he had spotted sophistry where we -thought it not. Even into the castles of science he had gone like a -juggernaut. It is hard to have one’s theories derided—yea, even for a -scientist—and to be called a fool! Dr. Robold knew no middle -language;he was not relished by science. - -His memory, as we have it, is that of an eccentric. A man of slight -compassion, abrupt of manner and with no tact in speaking. Genius is -often so; it is a strange fact that many of the greatest of men have -been denied by their fellows. A great man and laughter. He was not -accepted. - -None of us know to-day what it cost Dr. Robold. He was not the man to -tell us. Perhaps Charley Huyck might; but his lips are sealed forever. -We only know that he retired to the mountain, and of the subsequent -flood of benefits that rained upon mankind. And we still denied him. -The great cynic on the mountain. Of the secrets of the place we know -little. He was not the man to accept the investigator; he despised the -curious. He had been laughed at—let be—he would work alone on the -great moment of the future. - -In the light of the past we may well bend knee to the doctor and his -protégé, Charley Huyck. Two men and destiny! What would we be without -them? One shudders to think. - -A little thing, and yet one of the greatest moments in the world’s -history. It must have been Fate. Why was it that this stern man, who -hated all emotion, should so have unbended at this moment? That we -cannot answer. But we can conjecture. Mayhap it is this: We were all -wrong; we accepted the man’s exterior and profession as the fact of -his marrow. - -No man can lose all emotion. The doctor, was, after all, even as -ourselves—he was human. Whatever may be said, we have the certainty of -that moment—and of Charley Huyck. - -The sun’s rays were hot; they were burning; the pavements were -intolerable; the baked air in the canyoned street was dancing like -that of an oven; a day of dog-days. The boy crossing the street; his -arms full of papers, and the glass bulging in his little hip-pocket. - -At the curb he stopped. With such a sun it was impossible to long -forget his plaything. He drew it carefully out of his pocket, lay down -a paper and began distancing his glass for the focus. He did not -notice the man beside him. Why should he? The round dot, the brownish -smoke, the red spark and the flash of flame! He stamped upon it. A -moment out of boyhood; an experimental miracle as old as the age of -glass, and just as delightful. The boy had spoiled the name of a great -Governor of a great State; but the paper was still salable. He had had -his moment. Mark that moment. - -A hand touched his shoulder. The lad leaped up. “Yessir. _Star_ or -_Bulletin_?” - -“I’ll take one of each,” said the man. “There now. I was just watching -you. Do you know what you were doing?” - -“Yessir. Burning paper. Startin’ fire. That’s the way the Indians did -it.” - -The man smiled at the perversion of fact. There is not such a distance -between sticks and glass in the age of childhood. - -“I know,” he said—“the Indians. But do you know how it was done; the -why—why the paper began to blaze?” - -“Yessir.” - -“All right, explain.” - -The boy looked up at him. He was a city boy and used to the streets. -Here was some old high-brow challenging his wisdom. Of course he knew. -“It’s the sun.” - -“There,” laughed the man. “Of course. You said you knew, but you -don’t. Why doesn’t the sun, without the glass, burn the paper? Tell me -that.” - -The boy was still looking up at him; he saw that the man was not like -the others on the street. It may be that the strange intimacy kindled -into being at that moment. Certainly it was a strange unbending for -the doctor. - -“It would if it was hot enough or you could get enough of it -together.” - -“Ah! Then that is what the glass is for, is it?” - -“Yessir.” - -“Concentration?” - -“Con— I don’t know, sir. But it’s the sun. She’s sure some hot. I know -a lot about the sun, sir. I’ve studied it with the glass. The glass -picks up all the rays and puts them in one hole and that’s what burns -the paper. - -“It’s lots of fun. I’d like to have a bigger one; but it’s all I’ve -got. Why, do you know, if I had a glass big enough and a place to -stand, I’d burn up the earth?” - -The old man laughed. “Why, Archimedes! I thought you were dead.” - -“My name ain’t Archimedes. It’s Charley Huyck.” - -Again the old man laughed. - -“Oh, is it? Well, that’s a good name, too. And if you keep on you’ll -make it famous as the name of the other.” Wherein he was foretelling -history. “Where do you live?” - -The boy was still looking. Ordinarily he would not have told, but he -motioned back with his thumb. - -“I don’t live; I room over on Brennan Street.” - -“Oh, I see. You room. Where’s your mother?” - -“Search me; I never saw her.” - -“I see; and your father?” - -“How do I know. He went floating when I was four years old.” - -“Floating?” - -“Yessir—to sea.” - -“So your mother’s gone and your father’s floating. Archimedes is -adrift. You go to school?” - -“Yessir” - -“What reader?” - -“No reader. Sixth grade.” - -“I see. What school?” - -“School Twenty-six. Say, it’s hot. I can’t stand here all day. I’ve -got to sell my papers.” - -The man pulled out a purse. - -“I’ll take the lot,” he said. Then kindly: “My boy, I would like to -have you go with me.” - -It was a strange moment. A little thing with the fates looking on. -When destiny plays she picks strange moments. This was one. Charley -Huyck went with Dr. Robold. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - THE POISON PALL - - -We all of us remember that fatal day when the news startled all of -Oakland. No one can forget it. At first it read like a newspaper hoax, -in spite of the oft-proclaimed veracity of the press, and we were -inclined to laughter. ’Twixt wonder at the story and its -impossibilities we were not a little enthused at the nerve of the man -who put it over. - -It was in the days of dry reading. The world had grown populous and of -well-fed content. Our soap-box artists had come to the point at last -where they preached, not disaster, but a full-bellied thanks for the -millennium that was here. A period of Utopian quietness—no villain -around the corner; no man to covet the ox of his neighbor. - -Quiet reading, you’ll admit. Those were the days of the millennium. -Nothing ever happened. Here’s hoping they never come again. And then: - -Honestly, we were not to blame for bestowing blessing out of our -hearts upon that newspaperman. Even if it were a hoax, it was at least -something. - -At high noon. The clock in the city hall had just struck the hour that -held the post ’twixt a.m. and p.m., a hot day with a sky that was -clear and azure; a quiet day of serene peace and contentment. A -strange and a portent moment. Looking back and over the miracle we may -conjecture that it was the clearness of the atmosphere and the -brightness of the sun that helped to the impact of the disaster. -Knowing what we know now we can appreciate the impulse of natural -phenomena. It was _not_ a miracle. - -The spot: Fourteenth and Broadway, Oakland, California. - -Fortunately the thousands of employees in the stores about had not yet -come out for their luncheons. The lapse that it takes to put a hat on, -or to pat a ribbon, saved a thousand lives. One shudders to think of -what would have happened had the spot been crowded. Even so, it was -too impossible and too terrible to be true. Such things could not -happen. - -At high noon: Two street-cars crossing Fourteenth on Broadway—two cars -with the same joggle and bump and the same aspect of any of a hundred -thousand at a traffic corner. The wonder is—there were so few people. -A Telegraph car outgoing, and a Broadway car coming in. The traffic -policeman at his post had just given his signal. Two automobiles were -passing and a single pedestrian, so it is said, was working his way -diagonally across the corner. Of this we are not certain. - -It was a moment that impinged on miracle. Even as we recount it, -knowing, as we do, the explanation, we sense the impossibility of the -event. A phenomenon that holds out and, in spite of our findings, -lingers into the miraculous. To be and not to be. One moment life and -action, an ordinary scene of existent monotony; and the next moment -nothing. The spot, the intersection of the street, the passing -street-cars, the two automobiles, pedestrian, the -policeman—non-existent! When events are instantaneous reports are apt -to be misleading. This is what we find. - -Some of those who beheld it, report a flash of bluish white light; -others that it was of a greenish or even a violet hue; and others, no -doubt of stronger vision, that it was not only of a predominant color -but that it was shot and sparkled with a myriad specks of flame and -burning. - -It gave no warning and it made no sound; not even a whir. Like a hot -breath out of the void. Whatever the forces that had focused, they -were destruction. There was no Fourteenth and Broadway. The two -automobiles, the two street-cars, the pedestrian, the policeman had -been whiffed away as if they had never existed. In place of the -intersection of the thoroughfares was a yawning gulf that looked down -into the center of the earth to a depth of nausea. - -It was instantaneous; it was without sound; no warning. A tremendous -force of unlimited potentiality had been loosed to kinetic violence. -It was the suddenness and the silence that belied credence. We were -accustomed to associate all disaster with confusion; calamity has an -affinity with pandemonium, all things of terror climax into sound. In -this case there was no sound. Hence the wonder. - -A hole or bore forty feet in diameter. Without a particle of warning -and without a bit of confusion. The spectators one and all aver that -at first they took it for nothing more than the effect of startled -eyesight. Almost subtle. It was not until after a full minute’s -reflection that they became aware that a miracle had been wrought -before their faces. Then the crowd rushed up and with awe and now -awakened terror gazed down into that terrible pit. - -We say “Terrible” because in this case it is an exact adjective. The -strangest hole that man ever looked into. It was so deep that at first -it appeared to have no bottom; not even the strongest eyesight could -penetrate the smoldering blackness that shrouded the depths -descending. It took a stout heart and courage to stand and hold one’s -head on the brink for even a minute. - -It was straight and precipitous; a perfect circle in shape; with sides -as smooth as the effect of machine work, the pavement and stone curb -had been cut as if by a razor. Of the two street-cars, two automobiles -and their occupants there was nothing. The whole thing so silent and -complete. Not even the spectators could really believe it. - -It was a hard thing to believe. The newspapers themselves, when the -news came clamoring, accepted it with reluctance. It was too much like -a hoax. Not until the most trusted reporters had gone and had wired in -their reports would they even consider it. Then the whole world sat up -and took notice. - -A miracle! Like Oakland’s Press we all of us doubted that hole. We had -attained almost everything that was worth the knowing; we were the -masters of the earth and its secrets and we were proud of our wisdom; -naturally we refused such reports all out of reason. It must be a -hoax. - -But the wires were persistent. Came corroboration. A reliable -news-gathering organization soon was coming through with elaborate and -detailed accounts of just what was happening. We had the news from the -highest and most reputable authority. - -And still we doubted. It was the story itself that brought the -doubting; its touch on miracle. It was too easy to pick on the -reporter. There might be a hole, and all that; but this thing of no -explanation! A bomb perhaps? No noise? Some new explosive? No such -thing? Well, how did we know? It was better than a miracle. - -Then came the scientists. As soon as could be men of great minds had -been hustled to the scene. The world had long been accustomed to -accept without quibble the dictum of these great specialists of fact. -With their train of accomplishments behind them we would hardly be -consistent were we to doubt them. - -We know the scientist and his habits. He is the one man who will -believe nothing until it is proved. It is his profession, and for that -we pay him. He can catch the smallest bug that ever crawled out of an -atom and give it a name so long that a Polish wrestler, if he had to -bear it, would break under the burden. It is his very knack of getting -in under that has given us our civilization. You don’t baffle a -scientist in our Utopia. It can’t be done. Which is one of the very -reasons why we began to believe in the miracle. - -In a few moments a crowd of many thousands had gathered about the -spot; the throng grew so dense that there was peril of some of them -being crowded into the pit at the center. It took all the spare -policemen of the city to beat them back far enough to string ropes -from the corners. For blocks the streets were packed with wondering -thousands. Street traffic was impossible. It was necessary to divert -the cars to a roundabout route to keep the arteries open to the -suburbs. - -Wild rumors spread over the city. No one knew how many passengers had -been upon the street-cars. The officials of the company, from the -schedule, could pick the numbers of the cars and their crews; but who -could tell of the occupants? - -Telephones rang with tearful pleadings. When the first rumors of the -horror leaked out every wife and mother felt the clutch of panic at -her heartstrings. It was a moment of historical psychology. Out of our -books we had read of this strange phase of human nature that was wont -to rise like a mad screeching thing out of disaster. We had never had -it in Utopia. - -It was rumbling at first and out of exaggeration; as the tale passed -farther back to the waiting thousands it gained with the repetition. -Grim and terrible enough in fact, it ratioed up with reiteration. -Perhaps after all it was not psychology. The average impulse of the -human mind does not even up so exactly. In the light of what we now -know it may have been the poison that had leaked into the air; the new -element that was permeating the atmosphere of the city. - -At first it was spasmodic. The nearest witnesses of the disaster were -the first victims. A strange malady began to spot out among those of -the crowd who had been at the spot of contact. This is to be noticed. -A strange affliction which from the virulence and rapidity of action -was quite puzzling to the doctors. - -Those among the physicians who would consent to statement gave it out -that it was breaking down of tissue. Which of course it was; the new -element that was radiating through the atmosphere of the city. They -did not know it then. - -The pity of it! The subtle, odorless pall was silently shrouding out -over the city. In a short time the hospitals were full and it was -necessary to call in medical aid from San Francisco. They had not even -time for diagnosis. The new plague was fatal almost at conception. -Happily the scientists made the discovery. - -It was the pall. At the end of three hours it was known that the death -sheet was spreading out over Oakland. We may thank our stars that it -was learned so early. Had the real warning come a few hours later the -death list would have been appalling. - -A new element had been discovered; or if not a new element, at least -something which was tipping over all the laws of the atmospheric -envelope. A new combination that was fatal. When the news and the -warning went out, panic fell upon the bay shore. - -But some men stuck. In the face of such terror there were those who -stayed and with grimness and sacrifice hung to their posts for -mankind. There are some who had said that the stuff of heroes had -passed away. Let them then consider the case of John Robinson. - -Robinson was a telegraph operator. Until that day he was a poor -unknown; not a whit better than his fellows. Now he has a name that -will run in history. In the face of what he knew he remained under the -blanket. The last words out of Oakland—his last message: - -“Whole city of Oakland in grip of strange madness. Keep out of -Oakland,”—following which came a haphazard personal commentary: - -“I can feel it coming on myself. It is like what our ancestors must -have felt when they were getting drunk—alternating desires of fight -and singing—a strange sensation, light, and ecstatic with a spasmodic -twitching over the forehead. Terribly thirsty. Will stick it out if I -can get enough water. Never so dry in my life.” - -Followed a lapse of silence. Then the last words: “I guess we’re done -for. There is some poison in the atmosphere—something. It has leaked, -of course, out of this thing at Fourteenth and Broadway. Dr. Manson of -the American Institute says it is something new that is forming a -fatal combination; but he cannot understand a new element; the -quantity is too enormous. - -“Populace has been warned out of the city. All roads are packed with -refugees. The Berkeley Hills are covered as with flies—north, east, -and south and on the boats to Frisco. The poison, whatever it is, is -advancing in a ring from Fourteenth and Broadway. You have got to pass -it to these old boys of science. They are staying with that ring. -Already they have calculated the rate of its advance and have given -warning. They don’t know what it is, but they have figured just how -fast it is moving. They have saved the city. - -“I am one of the few men now inside the wave. Out of curiosity I have -stuck. I have a jug and as long as it lasts I shall stay. Strange -feeling. Dry, dry, dry, as if the juice of one’s life cells was -turning into dust. Water evaporating almost instantly. It cannot pass -through glass. Whatever the poison it has an affinity for moisture. Do -not understand it. I have had enough—” - -That was all. After that there was no more news out of Oakland. It is -the only word that we have out of the pall itself. It was short and -disconnected and a bit slangy; but for all that a basis from which to -conjecture. - -It is a strange and glorious thing how some men will stick to the post -of danger. This operator knew that it meant death; but he held with -duty. Had he been a man of scientific training his information might -have been of incalculable value. However, may God bless his heroic -soul! - -What we know is thirst! The word that came from the experts confirmed -it. Some new element of force was stealing or sapping the humidity out -of the atmosphere. Whether this was combining and entering into a -poison could not be determined. - -Chemists worked frantically at the outposts of the advancing ring. In -four hours it had covered the city; in six it had reached San Leandro, -and was advancing on toward Haywards. - -It was a strange story and incredible from the beginning. No wonder -the world doubted. Such a thing had never happened. We had accepted -the law of judging the future by the past; by deduction; we were used -to sequence and to law; to the laws of Nature. This thing did look -like a miracle; which was merely because—as usually it is with -“miracles”—we could not understand it. Happily, we can look back now -and still place our faith in Nature. - -The world doubted and was afraid. Was this peril to spread slowly over -the whole state of California and then on to the—world. Doubt always -precedes terror. A tense world waited. Then came the word of -reassurance—from the scientists: - -“Danger past; vigor of the ring is abating. Calculation has deduced -that the wave is slowly decreasing in potentiality. It is too early -yet to say that there will be recessions, as the wave is just reaching -its zenith. What it is we cannot say; but it cannot be inexplicable. -After a little time it will all be explained. Say to the world there -is no cause for alarm.” - -But the world was now aroused; as it doubted the truth before, it -doubted now the reassurance. Did the scientists know? Could they have -only seen the future! We know now that they did not. There was but one -man in all the world great enough to foresee disaster. That man was -Charley Huyck. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - THE MOUNTAIN THAT WAS - - -On the same day on which all this happened, a young man, Pizzozi by -name and of Italian parentage, left the little town of Ione in Amador -County, California, with a small truck-load of salt. He was one of the -cattlemen whose headquarters or home-farms are clustered about the -foothills of the Sierras. In the wet season they stay with their -home-land in the valley; in the summer they penetrate into the -mountains. Pizzozi had driven in from the mountains the night before, -after salt. He had been on the road since midnight. - -Two thousand salt-hungry cattle do not allow time for gossip. With the -thrift of his race, Joe had loaded up his truck and after a running -snatch at breakfast was headed back into the mountains. When the news -out of Oakland was thrilling around the world he was far into the -Sierras. - -The summer quarters of Pizzozi were close to Mt. Heckla, whose looming -shoulders rose square in the center of the pasture of the three -brothers. It was not a noted mountain—that is, until this day—and had -no reason for a name other than that it was a peak outstanding from -the range; like a thousand others, rugged, pine clad, coated with -deer-brush, red soil, and mountain miserie. - -It was the deer-brush that gave it value to the Pizzozis—a succulent -feed richer than alfalfa. In the early summer they would come up with -bony cattle. When they returned in the fall they went out driving -beef-steaks. But inland cattle must have more than forage. Salt is the -tincture that makes them healthy. - -It was far past the time of the regular salting. Pizzozi was in a -hurry. It was nine o’clock when he passed through the mining town of -Jackson; and by twelve o’clock—the minute of the disaster—he was well -beyond the last little hamlet that linked up with civilization. It was -four o’clock when he drew up at the little pine-sheltered cabin that -was his headquarters for the summer. - -He had been on the road since midnight. He was tired. The long weary -hours of driving, the grades, the unvaried stress though the deep red -dust, the heat, the stretch of a night and day had worn both mind and -muscle. It had been his turn to go after salt; now that he was here, -he could lie in for a bit of rest while his brothers did the salting. - -It was a peaceful spot! this cabin of the Pizzozis; nestled among the -virgin shade trees, great tall feathery sugar-pines with a mountain -live oak spreading over the door yard. To the east the rising heights -of the Sierras, misty, gray-green, undulating into the distance to the -pink-white snow crests of Little Alpine. Below in the canyon, the -waters of the Mokolumne; to the west the heavy dark masses of Mt. -Heckla, deep verdant in the cool of coming evening. - -Joe drew up under the shade of the live oak. The air was full of cool, -sweet scent of the afternoon. No moment could have been more peaceful; -the blue clear sky overhead, the breath of summer, and the soothing -spice of the pine trees. A shepherd dog came bounding from the doorway -to meet him. - -It was his favorite cow dog. Usually when Joe came back the dog would -be far down the road to forestall him. He had wondered, absently, -coming up, at the dog’s delay. A dog is most of all a creature of -habit; only something unusual would detain him. However the dog was -here; as the man drew up he rushed out to greet him. A rush, a circle, -a bark, and a whine of welcome. Perhaps the dog had been asleep. - -But Joe noticed that whine; he was wise in the ways of dogs; when -Ponto whined like that there was something unusual. It was not -effusive or spontaneous; but rather of the delight of succor. After -scarce a minute of petting, the dog squatted and faced to the -westward. His whine was startling; almost fearful. - -Pizzozi knew that something was wrong. The dog drew up, his stub tail -erect, and his hair all bristled; one look was for his master and the -other whining and alert to Mt. Heckla. Puzzled, Joe gazed at the -mountain. But he saw nothing. - -Was it the canine instinct, or was it coincidence? We have the account -from Pizzozi. From the words of the Italian, the dog was afraid. It -was not the way of Ponto; usually in the face of danger he was alert -and eager; now he drew away to the cabin. Joe wondered. - -Inside the shack he found nothing but evidence of departure. There was -no sign of his brothers. It was his turn to go to sleep; he was -wearied almost to numbness, for forty-eight hours he had not closed an -eyelid. On the table were a few unwashed dishes and crumbs of eating. -One of the three rifles that hung usually on the wall was missing; the -coffee pot was on the floor with the lid open. On the bed the -coverlets were mussed up. It was a temptation to go to sleep. Back of -him the open door and Ponto. The whine of the dog drew his will and -his consciousness into correlation. A faint rustle in the sugar-pines -soughed from the canyon. - -Joe watched the dog. The sun was just glowing over the crest of the -mountain; on the western line the deep lacy silhouettes of the pine -trees and the bare bald head of Heckla. What was it? His brothers -should be on hand for the salting; it was not their custom to put -things off for the morrow. Shading his eyes he stepped out of the -doorway. - -The dog rose stealthily and walked behind him, uneasily, with the same -insistent whine and ruffled hair. Joe listened. Only the mountain -murmurs, the sweet breath of the forest, and in the lapse of bated -breath the rippling melody of the river far below him. - -“What you see, Ponto? What you see?” - -At the words the dog sniffed and advanced slightly—a growl and then a -sudden scurry to the heels of his master. Ponto was afraid. It puzzled -Pizzozi. But whatever it was that roused his fear, it was on Mt. -Heckla. - -This is one of the strange parts of the story—the part the dog played, -and what came after. Although it is a trivial thing it is one of the -most inexplicable. Did the dog sense it? We have no measure for the -range of instinct, but we do have it that before the destruction of -Pompeii the beasts roared in their cages. Still, knowing what we now -know, it is hard to accept the analogy. It may, after all have been -coincidence. - -Nevertheless it decided Pizzozi. The cattle needed salt. He would -catch up his pinto and ride over to the salt logs. - -There is no moment in the cattle industry quite like the salting on -the range. It is not the most spectacular perhaps, but surely it is -not lacking in intenseness. The way of Pizzozi was musical even if not -operatic. He had a long-range call, a rising rhythm that for depth and -tone had a peculiar effect on the shattered stillness. It echoed and -reverberated, and pealed from the top to the bottom of the mountain. -The salt call is the talisman of the mountains. - -“_Alleewahoo!_” - -Two thousand cattle augmented by a thousand strays held up their heads -in answer. The sniff of the welcome salt call! Through the whole range -of the man’s voice the stock stopped in their leafy pasture and -listened. - -“_Alleewahoo!_” - -An old cow bellowed. It was the beginning of bedlam. From the bottom -of the mountain to the top and for miles beyond went forth the salt -call. Three thousand head bellowed to the delight of salting. - -Pizzozi rode along. Each lope of his pinto through the tall tangled -miserie was accented. “_Alleewahoo! Alleewahoo!_” The rending of -brush, the confusion, and pandemonium spread to the very bottom of the -leafy gulches. It is no place for a pedestrian. Heads and tails erect, -the cattle were stampeding toward the logs. - -A few head had beat him to it. These he quickly drove away and cut the -sack open. With haste he poured it upon the logs; then he rode out of -the dust that for yards about the place was tramped to the finest -powder. The center of a herd of salting range stock is no place for -comfort. The man rode away; to the left he ascended a low knob where -he would be safe from the stampede; but close enough to distinguish -the brands. - -In no time the place was alive with milling stock. Old cows, heifers, -bulls, calves, steers rushed out of the crashing brush into the -clearing. There is no moment exactly like it. What before had been a -broad clearing of brownish reddish dust was trampled into a vast cloud -of bellowing blur, a thousand cattle, and still coming. From the -farthest height came the echoing call. Pizzozi glanced up at the top -of the mountain. - -And then a strange thing happened. - -From what we gathered from the excited accounts of Pizzozi it was -instantaneous; and yet by the same words it was of such a peculiar and -beautiful effect as never to be forgotten. A bluish azure shot though -with a myriad flecks of crimson, a peculiar vividness of opalescence; -the whole world scintillating; the sky, the air, the mountain, a vast -flame of color so wide and so intense that there seemed not a thing -beside it. And instantaneous—it was over almost before it was started. -No noise or warning, and no subsequent detonation: as silent as -winking and much, indeed, like the queer blur of color induced by -defective vision. All in the fraction of a second. Pizzozi had been -gazing at the mountain. There was no mountain! - -Neither were there cattle. Where before had been the shade of the -towering peak was now the rays of the western sun. Where had been the -blur of the milling herd and its deafening pandemonium was now a -strange silence. The transparency of the air was unbroken into the -distance. Far off lay a peaceful range in the sunset. There was no -mountain! Neither were there cattle! - -For a moment the man had enough to do with his plunging mustang. In -the blur of the subsequent second Pizzozi remembers nothing but a -convulsion of fighting horseflesh bucking, twisting, plunging, the -gentle pinto suddenly maddened into a demon. It required all the skill -of the cowman to retain his saddle. - -He did not know that he was riding on the rim of Eternity. In his mind -was the dim subconscious realization of a thing that had happened. In -spite of all his efforts the horse fought backward. It was some -moments before he conquered. Then he looked. - -It was a slow, hesitant moment. One cannot account for what he will do -in the open face of a miracle. What the Italian beheld was enough for -terror. The sheer immensity of the thing was too much for thinking. - -At the first sight his simplex mind went numb from sheer impotence; -his terror to a degree frozen. The whole of Mt. Heckla had been shorn -away; in the place of its darkened shadow the sinking sun was blinking -in his face; the whole western sky all golden. There was no vestige of -the flat salt-clearing at the base of the mountain. Of the two -thousand cattle milling in the dust not a one remained. The man -crossed himself in stupor. Mechanically he put the spurs to the pinto. - -But the mustang would not. Another struggle with bucking, fighting, -maddened horseflesh. The cowman must needs bring in all the skill of -his training; but by the time he had conquered his mind had settled -within some scope of comprehension. - -The pony had good reasons for his terror. This time though the man’s -mind reeled it did not go dumb at the clash of immensity. Not only had -the whole mountain been torn away, but its roots as well. The whole -thing was up-side down; the world torn to its entrails. In place of -what had been the height was a gulf so deep that its depths were -blackness. - -He was standing on the brink. He was a cool man, was Pizzozi; but it -was hard in the confusion of such a miracle to think clearly; much -less to reason. The prancing mustang was snorting with terror. The man -glanced down. - -The very dizziness of the gulf, sheer, losing itself into shadows and -chaos overpowered him, his mind now clear enough for perception reeled -at the distance. The depth was nauseating. His whole body succumbed to -a sudden qualm of weakness: the sickness that comes just before -falling. He went limp in the saddle. - -But the horse fought backward; warned by instinct it drew back from -the sheer banks of the gulf. It had no reason but its nature. At the -instant it sensed the snapping of the iron will of its master. In a -moment it had turned and was racing on its wild way out of the -mountains. At supreme moments a cattle horse will always hit for home. -The pinto and its limp rider were fleeing on the road to Jackson. - -Pizzozi had no knowledge of what had occurred in Oakland. To him the -whole thing had been but a flash of miracle; he could not reason. He -did not curb his horse. That he was still in the saddle was due more -to the near-instinct of his training than to his volition. - -He did not even draw up at the cabin. That he could make better time -with his motor than with his pinto did not occur to him; his mind was -far too busy; and, now that the thing was passed, too full of terror. -It was forty-four miles to town; it was night and the stars were -shining when he rode into Jackson. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - “MAN—A GREAT LITTLE BUG” - - -And what of Charley Huyck? It was his anticipation, and his training -which leaves us here to tell the story. Were it not for the strange -manner of his rearing, and the keen faith and appreciation of Dr. -Robold there would be to-day no tale to tell. The little incident of -the burning glass had grown. If there is no such thing as Fate there -is at least something that comes very close to being Destiny. - -On this night we find Charley at the observatory in Arizona. He is a -grown man and a great one, and though mature not so very far drawn -from the lad we met on the street selling papers. Tall, slender, very -slightly stooped and with the same idealistic, dreaming eyes of the -poet. Surely no one at first glance would have taken him for a -scientist. Which he was and was not. - -Indeed, there is something vastly different about the science of -Charley Huyck. Science to be sure, but not prosaic. He was the first -and perhaps the last of the school of Dr. Robold, a peculiar -combination of poetry and fact, a man of vision, of vast, far-seeing -faith and idealism linked and based on the coldest and sternest truths -of materialism. A peculiar tenet of the theory of Robold: “True -science to be itself should be half poetry.” Which any of us who have -read or been at school know it is not. It is a peculiar theory and -though rather wild still with some points in favor. - -We all of us know our schoolmasters; especially those of science and -what they stand for. Facts, facts, nothing but facts; no dreams or -romance. Looking back we can grant them just about the emotions of -cucumbers. We remember their cold, hard features, the prodding after -fact, the accumulation of data. Surely there is no poetry in them. - -Yet we must not deny that they have been by far the most potent of all -men in the progress of civilization. Not even Robold would deny it. - -The point is this: - -The doctor maintained that from the beginning the progress of material -civilization had been along three distinct channels; science, -invention, and administration. It was simply his theory that the first -two should be one; that the scientist deal not alone with dry fact but -with invention, and that the inventor, unless he is a scientist, has -mastered but half his trade. “The really great scientist should be a -visionary,” said Robold, “and an inventor is merely a poet, with -tools.” - -Which is where we get Charley Huyck. He was a visionary, a scientist, -a poet with tools, the protege of Dr. Robold. He dreamed things that -no scientist had thought of. And we are thankful for his dreaming. - -The one great friend of Huyck was Professor Williams, a man from -Charley’s home city, who had known him even back in the days of -selling papers. They had been cronies in boyhood, in their teens, and -again at College. In after years, when Huyck had become the visionary, -the mysterious Man of the Mountain, and Williams a great professor of -astronomy, the friendship was as strong as ever. - -But there was a difference between them. Williams was exact to -acuteness, with not a whit of vision beyond pure science. He had been -reared in the old stone-cold theory of exactness; he lived in figures. -He could not understand Huyck or his reasoning. Perfectly willing to -follow as far as facts permitted he refused to step off into -speculation. - -Which was the point between them. Charley Huyck had vision; although -exact as any man, he had ever one part of his mind soaring out into -speculation. What is, and what might be, and the gulf between. To -bridge the gulf was the life work of Charley Huyck. - -In the snug little office in Arizona we find them; Charley with his -feet poised on the desk and Williams precise and punctilious, true to -his training, defending the exactness of his philosophy. It was the -cool of the evening; the sun was just mellowing the heat of the -desert. Through the open door and windows a cool wind was blowing. -Charley was smoking; the same old pipe had been the bane of Williams’s -life at college. - -“Then we know?” he was asking. - -“Yes,” spoke the professor, “what we know, Charley, we know; though of -course it is not much. It is very hard, nay impossible, to deny -figures. We have not only the proofs of geology but of astronomical -calculation, we have facts and figures plus our sidereal relations all -about us. - -“The world must come to an end. It is a hard thing to say it, but it -is a fact of science. Slowly, inevitably, ruthlessly, the end will -come. A mere question of arithmetic.” - -Huyck nodded. It was his special function in life to differ with his -former roommate. He had come down from his own mountain in Colorado -just for the delight of difference. - -“I see. Your old calculations of tidal retardation. Or if that doesn’t -work the loss of oxygen and the water.” - -“Either one or the other; a matter of figures; the earth is being -drawn every day by the sun: its rotation is slowing up; when the time -comes it will act to the sun in exactly the same manner as the moon -acts to the earth to-day.” - -“I understand. It will be a case of eternal night for one side of the -earth, and eternal day for the other. A case of burn up or freeze up.” - -“Exactly. Of if it doesn’t reach to that, the water gas will gradually -lose out into sidereal space and we will go to desert. Merely a -question of the old dynamical theory of gases; of the molecules to be -in motion, to be forever colliding and shooting out into variance. - -“Each minute, each hour, each day we are losing part of our -atmospheric envelope. In course of time it will all be gone; when it -is we shall be all desert. For instance, take a look outside. This is -Arizona. Once it was the bottom of a deep blue sea. Why deny when we -can already behold the beginning.” - -The other laughed. - -“Pretty good mathematics at that, professor. Only—” - -“Only?” - -“That it is merely mathematics.” - -“Merely mathematics?” The professor frowned slightly. “Mathematics do -not lie, Charlie, you cannot get away from them. What sort of fanciful -argument are you bringing up now?” - -“Simply this,” returned the other, “that you depend too much on -figures. They are material and in the nature of things can only be -employed in a calculation of what may happen in the future. You must -have premises to stand on, facts. Your figures are rigid: they have no -elasticity; unless your foundations are permanent and faultless your -deductions will lead you only into error.” - -“Granted; just the point: we know where we stand. Wherein are we in -error?” - -It was the old point of difference. Huyck was ever crashing down the -idols of pure materialism. Williams was of the world-wide school. - -“You are in error, my dear professor, in a very little thing and a -very large one.” - -“What is that?” - -“Man.” - -“Man?” - -“Yes. He’s a great little bug. You have left him out of your -calculation—which he will upset.” - -The professor smiled indulgently. “I’ll allow; he is at least a -conceited bug; but you surely cannot grant him much when pitted -against the Universe.” - -“No? Did it ever occur to you. Professor, what the Universe is? The -stars for instance? Space, the immeasurable distance of Infinity. Have -you never dreamed?” - -Williams could not quite grasp him. Huyck had a habit that had grown -out of childhood. Always he would allow his opponent to commit -himself. The professor did not answer. But the other spoke. - -“Ether. You know it. Whether mind or granite. For instance, your -desert.” He placed his finger to his forehead. “Your mind, my -mind—localized ether.” - -“What are you driving at?” - -“Merely this. Your universe has intelligence. It has mind as well as -matter. The little knot called the earth is becoming conscious. Your -deductions are incompetent unless they embrace mind as well as matter, -and they cannot do it. Your mathematics are worthless.” - -The professor bit his lip. - -“Always fanciful.” he commented, “and visionary. Your argument is -beautiful, Charley, and hopeful. I would that it were true. But all -things must mature. Even an earth must die.” - -“Not our earth. You look into the past, professor, for your proof, and -I look into the future. Give a planet long enough time in maturing and -it will develop life; give it still longer and it will produce -intelligence. Our own earth is just coming into consciousness; it has -thirty million years, at least, to run.” - -“You mean?” - -“This. That man is a great little bug. Mind: the intelligence of the -earth.” - -This of course is a bit dry. The conversation of such men very often -is to those who do not care to follow them. But it is very pertinent -to what came after. We know now, everyone knows, that Charley Huyck -was right. Even Professor Williams admits it. Our earth is conscious. -In less than twenty-four hours it had to employ its consciousness to -save itself from destruction. - -A bell rang. It was the private wire that connected the office with -the residence. The professor picked up the receiver. “Just a minute. -Yes? All right.” Then to his companion: “I must go over to the house, -Charley. We have plenty of time. Then we can go up to the -observatory.” - -Which shows how little we know about ourselves. Poor Professor -Williams! Little did he think that those casual words were the last he -would ever speak to Charley Huyck. - -The whole world seething! The beginning of the end! Charley Huyck in -the vortex. The next few hours were to be the most strenuous of the -planet’s history. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - APPROACHING DISASTER - - -It was night. The stars which had just been coming out were spotted by -millions over the sleeping desert. One of the nights that are peculiar -to the country, which we all of us know so well, if not from -experience, at least from hearsay; mellow, soft, sprinkled like salted -fire, twinkling. - -Each little light a message out of infinity. Cosmic grandeur; mind: -chaos, eternity—a night for dreaming. Whoever had chosen the spot in -the desert had picked full well. Charley had spoken of consciousness. -On that night when he gazed up at the stars he was its -personification. Surely a good spirit was watching over the earth. - -A cool wind was blowing; on its breath floated the murmurs from the -village; laughter, the song of children, the purring of motors and the -startled barking of a dog; the confused drone of man and his -civilization. From the eminence the observatory looked down upon the -town and the sheen of light, spotting like jewels in the dim glow of -the desert. To the east the mellow moon just tipping over the -mountain. Charley stepped to the window. - -He could see it all. The subtle beauty that was so akin to poetry: the -stretch of desert, the mountains, the light in the eastern sky; the -dull level shadow that marked the plain to the northward. To the west -the mountains looming black to the star line. A beautiful night; -sweetened with the breath of desert and tuned to its slumber. - -Across the lawn he watched the professor descending the pathway under -the acacias. An automobile was coming up the driveway; as it drove up -under the arcs he noticed its powerful lines and its driver; one of -those splendid pleasure cars that have returned to favor during the -last decade; the soft purr of its motor, the great heavy tires and its -coating of dust. There is a lure about a great car coming in from the -desert. The car stopped, Charley noted. Doubtless some one for -Williams. If it were, he would go into the observatory alone. - -In the strict sense of the word Huyck was not an astronomer. He had -not made it his profession. But for all that he knew things about the -stars that the more exact professors had not dreamed of. Charley was a -dreamer. He had a code all his own and a manner of reasoning. Between -him and the stars lay a secret. - -He had not divulged it, or if he had, it was in such an open way that -it was laughed at. It was not cold enough in calculation or, even if -so, was too far from their deduction. Huyck had imagination; his -universe was alive and potent; it had intelligence. Matter could not -live without it. Man was its manifestation; just come to -consciousness. The universe teemed with intelligence. Charley looked -at the stars. - -He crossed the office, passed through the reception-room and thence to -the stairs that led to the observatory. In the time that would lapse -before the coming of his friend he would have ample time for -observation. Somehow he felt that there was time for discovery. He had -come down to Arizona to employ the lens of his friend the astronomer. -The instrument that he had erected on his own mountain in Colorado had -not given him the full satisfaction that he expected. Here in Arizona, -in the dry clear air, which had hitherto given such splendid results, -he hoped to find what he was after. But little did he expect to -discover the terrible thing he did. - -It is one of the strangest parts of the story that he should be here -at the very moment when Fate and the world’s safety would have had -him. For years he and Dr. Robold had been at work on their visionary -projects. They were both dreamers. While others had scoffed they had -silently been at their great work on kinetics. - -The boy and the burning glass had grown under the tutelage of Dr. -Robold: the time was about at hand when he could out-rival the saying -of Archimedes. Though the world knew it not, Charley Huyck had arrived -at the point where he could literally burn up the earth. - -But he was not sinister; though he had the power he had of course not -the slightest intention. He was a dreamer and it was part of his dream -that man break his thraldom to the earth and reach out into the -universe. It was a great conception and were it not for the terrible -event which took his life we have no doubt but that he would have -succeeded. - -It was ten-thirty when he mounted the steps and seated himself. He -glanced at his watch: he had a good ten minutes. He had computed -before just the time for the observation. For months he had waited for -just this moment; he had not hoped to be alone and now that he was in -solitary possession he counted himself fortunate. Only the stars and -Charley Huyck knew the secret; and not even he dreamed what it would -amount to. - -From his pocket he drew a number of papers; most of them covered with -notations; some with drawings; and a good sized map in colors. This he -spread before him, and with his pencil began to draw right across its -face a net of lines and cross lines. A number of figures and a rapid -computation. He nodded and then he made the observation. - -It would have been interesting to study the face of Charley Huyck -during the next few moments. At first he was merely receptive, his -face placid but with the studious intentness of one who has come to -the moment: and as he began to find what he was after—an eagerness of -satisfaction. Then a queer blankness; the slight movement of his body -stopped, and the tapping of his feet ceased entirely. - -For a full five minutes an absolute intentness. During that time he -was out among the stars beholding what not even he had dreamed of. It -was more than a secret: and what it was only Charley Huyck of all the -millions of men could have recognized. Yet it was more than even he -had expected. When he at last drew away his face was chalk-like; great -drops of sweat stood on his forehead: and the terrible truth in his -eyes made him look ten years older. - -“My God!” - -For a moment indecision and strange impotence. The truth he had beheld -numbed action; from his lips the mumbled words: - -“This world; my world; our great and splendid mankind!” - -A sentence that was despair and a benediction. - -Then mechanically he turned back to confirm his observation. This -time, knowing what he would see, he was not so horrified: his mind was -cleared by the plain fact of what he was beholding. When at last he -drew away his face was settled. - -He was a man who thought quickly—thank the stars for that—and, once he -thought, quick to spring to action. There was a peril poising over the -earth. If it were to be voided there was not a second to lose in -weighing up the possibilities. - -He had been dreaming all his life. He had never thought that the -climax was to be the very opposite of what he hoped for. In his under -mind he prayed for Dr. Robold—dead and gone forever. Were he only here -to help him! - -He seized a piece of paper. Over its white face he ran a mass of -computations. He worked like lightning; his fingers plying and his -mind keyed to the pin-point of genius. Not one thing did he overlook -in his calculation. If the earth had a chance he would find it. - -There are always possibilities. He was working out the odds of the -greatest race since creation. While the whole world slept, while the -uncounted millions lay down in fond security, Charley Huyck there in -the lonely room on the desert drew out their figured odds to the point -of infinity. - -“Just one chance in a million.” - -He was going to take it. The words were not out of his mouth before -his long legs were leaping down the stairway. In the flash of seconds -his mind was rushing into clear action. He had had years of dreaming; -all his years of study and tutelage under Robold gave him just the -training for such a disaster. - -But he needed time. Time! Time! Why was it so precious? He must get to -his own mountain. In six jumps he was in the office. - -It was empty. The professor had not returned. He thought rather grimly -and fleetingly of their conversation a few minutes before; what would -Williams think now of science and consciousness? He picked up the -telephone receiver. While he waited he saw out of the corner of his -eye the car in the driveway. It was— - -“Hello. The professor? What? Gone down to town? No! Well, say, this is -Charley”—he was watching the car in front of the building. “Say, -hello—tell him I have gone home, home! H-o-m-e to Colorado—to -Colorado, yes—to the mountain—the m-o-u-n-t-a-i-n. Oh, never mind—I’ll -leave a note. - -He clamped down the receiver. On the desk he scrawled on a piece of -paper: - - Ed: - - “Look these up. I’m bound for the mountain. No time to - explain. There’s a car outside. Stay with the lens. Don’t - leave it. If the earth goes up you will know that I have - not reached the mountain.” - -Beside the note he placed one of the maps that he had in his -pocket—with his pencil drew a black cross just above the center. Under -the map were a number of computations. - -It is interesting to note that in the stress of the great critical -moment he forgot the professor’s title. It was a good thing. When -Williams read it he recognized the significance. All through their -life in crucial moments he had been “Ed.” to Charley. - -But the note was all he was destined to find. A brisk wind was -blowing. By a strange balance of fate the same movement that let Huyck -out of the building ushered in the wind and upset calculation. - -It was a little thing, but it was enough to keep all the world in -ignorance and despair. The eddy whisking in through the door picked up -the precious map, poised it like a tiny plane, and dropped it neatly -behind a bookcase. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - A RACE TO SAVE THE WORLD - - -Huyck was working in a straight line. Almost before his last words on -the phone were spoken he had requisitioned that automobile outside; -whether money or talk, faith or force, he was going to have it. The -hum of the motor sounded in his ears as he ran down the steps. He was -hatless and in his shirt-sleeves. The driver was just putting some -tools in the car. With one jump Charley had him by the collar. - -“Five thousand dollars if you can get me to Robold Mountain in twenty -hours.” - -The very suddenness of the rush caught the man by surprise and lurched -him against the car, turning him half around. Charley found himself -gazing into dull brown eyes and sardonic laughter: a long, thin nose -and lips drooped at the corners, then as suddenly tipping up—a queer -creature, half devil, half laughter, and all fun. - -“Easy, Charley, easy! How much did you say? Whisper it.” - -It was Bob Winters. Bob Winters and his car. And waiting. Surely no -twist of fortune could have been greater. He was a college chum of -Huyck’s and of the professor’s. If there was one man that could make -the run in the time allotted, Bob was he. But Huyck was impersonal. -With the burden on his mind he thought of naught but his destination. - -“Ten thousand!” he shouted. - -The man held back his head. Huyck was far too serious to appreciate -mischief. But not the man. - -“Charley Huyck, of all men. Did young Lochinvar come out of the West? -How much did you say? This desert air and the dust, ’tis hard on the -hearing. She must be a young, fair maiden. Ten thousand.” - -“Twenty thousand. Thirty thousand. Damnation, man, you can have the -mountain. Into the car.” - -By sheer subjective strength he forced the other into the machine. It -was not until they were shooting out of the grounds on two wheels that -he realized that the man was Bob Winters. Still the workings of fate. - -The madcap and wild Bob of the races! Surely Destiny was on the job. -The challenge of speed and the premium. At the opportune moment before -disaster the two men were brought together. Minutes weighed up with -centuries and hours outbalanced millenniums. The whole world slept; -little did it dream that its very life was riding north with these two -men into the midnight. - -Into the midnight! The great car, the pride of Winter’s heart, leaped -between the pillars. At the very outset, madcap that he was, he sent -her into seventy miles an hour; they fairly jumped off the hill into -the village. At a full seventy-five he took the curve; she skidded, -sheered half around and swept on. - -For an instant Charley held his breath. But the master hand held her; -she steadied, straightened, and shot out into the desert. Above the -whir of the motor, flying dust and blurring what-not, Charley got the -tones of his companion’s voice. He had heard the words somewhere in -history. - -“Keep your seat, Mr. Greely. Keep your seat!” - -The moon was now far up over the mountain, the whole desert was bathed -in a mellow twilight; in the distance the mountains brooded like an -uncertain slumbering cloud bank. They were headed straight to the -northward; though there was a better road round about. Winters had -chosen the hard, rocky bee-line to the mountain. - -He knew Huyck and his reputation; when Charley offered thirty thousand -for a twenty-hour drive it was not mere byplay. He had happened in at -the observatory to drop in on Williams on his way to the coast. They -had been classmates; likewise he and Charley. - -When the excited man out of the observatory had seized him by the -collar, Winters merely had laughed. He was the speed king. The three -boys who had gone to school were now playing with the destiny of the -earth. But only Huyck knew it. - -Winters wondered. Through miles and miles of fleeting sagebrush, cacti -and sand and desolation, he rolled over the problem. Steady as a rock, -slightly stooped, grim and as certain as steel he held to the north. -Charley Huyck by his side, hatless, coatless, his hair dancing to the -wind, all impatience. Why was it? Surely a man even for death would -have time to get his hat. - -The whole thing spelled speed to Bob Winters; perhaps it was the -infusion of spirit or the intensity of his companion; but the thrill -ran into his vitals. Thirty thousand dollars—for a stake like -that—what was the balance? He had been called Wild Bob for his daring; -some had called him insane; on this night his insanity was -enchantment. - -It was wild; the lee of the giant roadster a whirring shower of -gravel: into the darkness, into the night the car fought over the -distance. The terrific momentum and the friction of the air fought in -their faces; Huyck’s face was unprotected: in no time his lips were -cracked, and long before they had crossed the level his whole face was -bleeding. - -But he heeded it not. He only knew that they were moving; that slowly, -minute by minute, they were cutting down the odds that bore disaster. -In his mind a maze of figures; the terrible sight he had seen in the -telescope and the thing impending. Why had he kept his secret? - -Over and again he impeached himself and Dr. Robold. It had come to -this. The whole world sleeping and only himself to save it. Oh, for a -few minutes, for one short moment! Would he get it? - -At last they reached the mountains. A rough, rocky road, and but -little traveled. Happily Winters had made it once before, and knew it. -He took it with every bit of speed they could stand, but even at that -it was diminished to a minimum. - -For hours they fought over grades and gulches, dry washouts and -boulders. It was dawn, and the sky was growing pink when they rode -down again upon the level. It was here that they ran across their -first trouble; and it was here that Winters began to realize vaguely -what a race they might be running. - -The particular level which they had entered was an elbow of the desert -projecting into the mountains just below a massive, newly constructed -dam. The reservoir had but lately been filled, and all was being put -in readiness for the dedication. - -An immense sheet of water extending far back into the mountains—it was -intended before long to transform the desert into a garden. Below, in -the valley, was a town, already the center of a prosperous irrigation -settlement; but soon, with the added area, to become a flourishing -city. The elbow, where they struck it, was perhaps twenty miles -across. Their northward path would take them just outside the tip -where the foothills of the opposite mountain chain melted into the -desert. Without ado Winters put on all speed and plunged across the -sands. And then: - -It was much like winking; but for all that something far more -impressive. To Winters, on the left hand of the car and with the east -on the right hand, it was much as if the sun had suddenly leaped up -and as suddenly plumped down behind the horizon—a vast vividness of -scintillating opalescence: an azure, flaming diamond shot by a million -fire points. - -Instantaneous and beautiful. In the pale dawn of the desert air its -wonder and color were beyond all beauty. Winters caught it out of the -corner of his eye; it was so instantaneous and so illusive that he was -not certain. Instinctively he looked to his companion. - -But Charley, too, had seen it. His attitude of waiting and hoping was -vigorized into vivid action. He knew just what it was. With one hand -he clutched Winters and fairly shouted. - -“On, on, Bob! On, as you value your life. Put into her every bit of -speed you have got.” - -At the same instant, at the same breath came a roar that was not to be -forgotten; crunching, rolling, terrible—like the mountain moving. - -Bob knew it. It was the dam. Something had broken it. To the east the -great wall of water fall-out of the mountains! A beautiful sight and -terrible; a relentless glassy roller fringed along its base by a lace -of racing foam. The upper part was as smooth as crystal; the stored-up -waters of the mountain moving out compactly. The man thought of the -little town below and its peril. But Huyck thought also. He shouted in -Winter’s ear: - -“Never mind the town. Keep straight north. Over yonder to the point of -the water. The town will have to drown.” - -It was inexorable; there was no pity; the very strength and purpose of -the command drove into the other’s understanding. Dimly now he -realized that they were really running a race against time. Winters -was a daredevil; the very catastrophe sent a thrill of exultation -through him. It was the climax, the great moment of his life, to be -driving at a hundred miles an hour under that wall of water. - -The roar was terrible. Before they were half across it seemed to the -two men that the very sound would drown them. There was nothing in the -world but pandemonium. The strange flash was forgotten in the terror -of the living wall that was reaching out to engulf them. Like insects -they whizzed in the open face of the deluge. When they had reached the -tip they were so close that the outrunning fringe of the surf was at -their wheels. - -Around the point with the wide open plain before them. With the flood -behind them it was nothing to outrun it. The waters with a wider -stretch spread out. In a few moments they had left all behind them. - -But Winters wondered; what was the strange flash of evanescent beauty? -He knew this dam and its construction; to outlast the centuries. It -had been whiffed in a second. It was not lightning. He had heard no -sound other than the rush of the waters. He looked to his companion. - -Hucyk nodded. - -“That’s the thing we are racing. We have only a few hours. Can we make -it?” - -Bob had thought that he was getting all the speed possible out of his -motor. What it yielded from that moment on was a revelation. - -It is not safe and hardly possible to be driving at such speed on the -desert. Only the best car and a firm roadway can stand it. A sudden -rut, squirrel hole, or pocket of sand is as good as destruction. They -rushed on till noon. - -Not even Winters, with all his alertness, could avoid it. Perhaps he -was weary. The tedious hours, the racking speed had worn him to -exhaustion. They had ceased to individualize, their way a blur, a -nightmare of speed and distance. - -It came suddenly, a blind barranca—one of those sunken, useless -channels that are death to the unwary. No warning. - -It was over just that quickly. A mere flash of consciousness plus a -sensation of flying. Two men broken on the sands and the great, -beautiful roadster a twisted ruin. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - A RIVEN CONTINENT - - -But back to the world. No one knew about Charley Huyck nor what was -occurring on the desert. Even if we had it would have been impossible -to construe connection. - -After the news out of Oakland, and the destruction of Mt. Heckla, we -were far too appalled. The whole thing was beyond us. Not even the -scientists with all their data could find one thing to work on. The -wires of the world buzzed with wonder and with panic. We were -civilized. It is really strange how quickly, in spite of our boasted -powers, we revert to the primitive. - -Superstition cannot die. Where was no explanation must be miracle. The -thing had been repeated. When would it strike again. And where? - -There was not long to wait. But this time the stroke was of far more -consequence and of far more terror. The sheer might of the thing shook -the earth. Not a man or government that would not resign in the face -of such destruction. - -It was omnipotent. A whole continent had been riven. It would be -impossible to give description of such catastrophe; no pen can tell it -any more than it could describe the creation. We can only follow in -its path. - -On the morning after the first catastrophe, at eight o’clock, just -south of the little city of Santa Cruz, on the north shore of the Bay -of Monterey, the same light and the same, though not quite the same, -instantaneousness. Those who beheld it report a vast ball of azure -blue and opalescent fire and motion; a strange sensation of vitalized -vibration; of personified living force. In shape like a marble, as -round as a full moon in its glory, but of infinitely more beauty. - -It came from nowhere; neither from above the earth nor below it. -Seeming to leap out of nothing, it glided or rather vanished to the -eastward. Still the effect of winking, though this time, perhaps from -a distanced focus, more vivid. A dot or marble, like a full moon, -burning, opal, soaring to the eastward. - -And instantaneous. Gone as soon as it was come; noiseless and of -phantom beauty; like a finger of the Omnipotent tracing across the -world, and as terrible. The human mind had never conceived a thing so -vast. - -Beginning at the sands of the ocean the whole country had vanished; a -chasm twelve miles wide and of unknown depth running straight to the -eastward, where had been farms and homes was nothing; the mountains -had been seared like butter. Straight as an arrow. - -Then the roar of the deluge. The waters of the Pacific breaking -through its sands and rolling into the Gulf of Mexico. That there was -no heat was evidenced by the fact that there was no steam. The thing -could not be internal. Yet what was it? - -One can only conceive in figures. From the shores of Santa Cruz to the -Atlantic—a few seconds; then out into the eastern ocean straight out -into the Sea of the Sargasso. A great gulf riven straight across the -face of North America. - -The path seemed to follow the sun; it bore to the eastward with a -slight southern deviation. The mountains it cut like cheese. Passing -just north of Fresno it seared through the gigantic Sierras halfway -between the Yosemite and Mt. Whitney, through the great desert to -southern Nevada, thence across northern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, -Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, entering the Atlantic at -a point halfway between Brunswick and Jacksonville. A great canal -twelve miles in width linking the oceans. A cataclysmic blessing. -Today, with thousands of ships bearing freight over its water, we can -bless that part of the disaster. - -But there was more to come. So far the miracle had been sporadic. -Whatever had been its force it had been fatal only on point and -occasion. In a way it had been local. The deadly atmospheric -combination of its aftermath was invariable in its recession. There -was no suffering. The death that it dealt was the death of -obliteration. But now it entered on another stage. - -The world is one vast ball, and, though large, still a very small -place to live in. There are few of us, perhaps, who look upon it, or -even stop to think of it, as a living being. Yet it is just that. It -has its currents, life, pulse, and its fevers; it is coordinate; a -million things such as the great streams of the ocean, the swirls of -the atmosphere, make it a place to live in. And we are conscious only, -or mostly, through disaster. - -A strange thing happened. - -The great opal like a mountain of fire had riven across the continent. -From the beginning and with each succession the thing was magnified. -But it was not until it had struck the waters of the Atlantic that we -became aware of its full potency and its fatality. - -The earth quivered at the shock, and man stood on his toes in terror. -In twenty-four hours our civilization was literally falling to pieces. -We were powerful with the forces that we understood; but against this -that had been literally ripped from the unknown we were insignificant. -The whole world was frozen. Let us see. - -Into the Atlantic! The transition. Hitherto silence. But now the roar -of ten thousand million Niagaras, the waters of the ocean rolling, -catapulting, roaring into the gulf that had been seared in its bosom. -The Gulf Stream cut in two, the currents that tempered our -civilization sheared in a second. Straight into the Sargasso Sea. The -great opal, liquid fire, luminescent, a ball like the setting sun, lay -poised upon the ocean. It was the end of the earth! - -What was this thing? The whole world knew of it in a second. And not a -one could tell. In less than forty hours after its first appearance in -Oakland it had consumed a mountain, riven a continent, and was -drinking up an ocean. The tangled sea of the Sargasso, dead calm for -ages, was a cataract; a swirling torrent of maddened waters rushed to -the opal—and disappeared. - -It was hellish and out of madness; as beautiful as it was uncanny. The -opal high as the Himalayas brooding upon the water; its myriad colors -blending, winking in a phantasm of iridescence. The beauty of its -light could be seen a thousand miles. A thing out of mystery and out -of forces. We had discovered many things and knew much; but had -guessed no such thing as this. It was vampirish, and it was literally -drinking up the earth. - -Consequences were immediate. The point of contact was fifty miles -across, the waters of the Atlantic with one accord turned to the -magnet. The Gulf Stream veered straight from its course and out across -the Atlantic. The icy currents from the poles freed from the warmer -barrier descended along the coasts and thence out into the Sargasso -Sea. The temperature of the temperate zone dipped below the point of a -blizzard. - -The first word come out of London. Freezing! And in July! The fruit -and entire harvest of northern Europe destroyed. Olympic games at -Copenhagen postponed by a foot of snow. The river Seine frozen. Snow -falling in New York. Crops nipped with frost as far south as Cape -Hatteras. - -A fleet of airplanes was despatched from the United States and another -from the west coast of Africa. Not half of them returned. Those that -did reported even more disaster. The reports that were handed in were -appalling. They had sailed straight on. It was like flying into the -sun; the vividness of the opalescence was blinding, rising for miles -above them alluring, drawing and unholy, and of a beauty that was -terror. - -Only the tardy had escaped. It even drew their motors, it was like -gravity suddenly become vitalized and conscious. Thousands of machines -vaulted into the opalescence. From those ahead hopelessly drawn and -powerless came back the warning. But hundreds could not escape. - -“Back,” came the wireless. “Do not come too close. The thing is a -magnet. Turn back before too late. Against this man is insignificant.” - -Then like gnats flitting into fire they vanished into the opalescence. - -The others turned back. The whole world freezing shuddered in horror. -A great vampire was brooding over the earth. The greatness that man -had attained to was nothing. Civilization was tottering in a day. We -were hopeless. - -Then came the last revelation; the truth and verity of the disaster -and the threatened climax. The water level of all the coast had gone -down. Vast ebb tides had gone out not to return. Stretches of sand -where had been surf extended far out into the sea. Then the truth! The -thing, whatever it was, was drinking up the ocean. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE MAN WHO SAVED THE EARTH - - -It was tragic; grim, terrible, cosmic. Out of nowhere had come this -thing that was eating up the earth. Not a thing out of all our science -had there been to warn us; not a word from all our wise men. We who -had built up our civilization, piece by piece, were after all but -insects. - -We were going out in a maze of beauty into the infinity whence we -came. Hour by hour the great orb of opalescence grew in splendor; the -effect and the beauty of its lure spread about the earth; thrilling, -vibrant like suppressed music. The old earth helpless. Was it possible -that out of her bosom she could not pluck one intelligence to save -her? Was there not one law—no answer? - -Out on the desert with his face to the sun lay the answer. Though -almost hopeless there was still some time and enough of near-miracle -to save us. A limping fate in the shape of two Indians and a battered -runabout at the last moment. - -Little did the two red men know the value of the two men found that -day on the desert. To them the debris of the mighty car and the prone -bodies told enough of the story. They were Samaritans; but there are -many ages to bless them. - -As it was there were many hours lost. Without this loss there would -have been thousands spared and an almost immeasurable amount of -disaster. But we have still to be thankful. Charley Huyck was still -living. - -He had been stunned; battered, bruised, and unconscious; but he had -not been injured vitally. There was still enough left of him to drag -himself to the old runabout and call for Winters. His companion, as it -happened, was in even better shape than himself, and waiting. We do -not know how they talked the red men out of their relic—whether by -coaxing, by threat, or by force. - -Straight north. Two men battered, worn, bruised, but steadfast, -bearing in that limping old motorcar the destiny of the earth. Fate -was still on the job, but badly crippled. - -They had lost many precious hours. Winters had forfeited his right to -the thirty thousand. He did not care. He understood vaguely that there -was a stake over and above all money. Huyck said nothing; he was too -maimed and too much below will-power to think of speaking. What had -occurred during the many hours of their unconsciousness was unknown to -them. It was not until they came sheer upon the gulf that had been -riven straight across the continent that the awful truth dawned on -them. - -To Winters it was terrible. The mere glimpse of that blackened chasm -was terror. It was bottomless; so deep that its depths were cloudy; -the misty haze of its uncertain shadows was akin to chaos. He -understood vaguely that it was related to that terrible thing they had -beheld in the morning. It was not the power of man. Some force had -been loosened which was ripping the earth to its vitals. Across the -terror of the chasm he made out the dim outlines of the opposite wall. -A full twelve miles across. - -For a moment the sight overcame even Huyck himself. Full well he knew; -but knowing, as he did, the full fact of the miracle was even more -than he expected. His long years under Robold, his scientific -imagination had given him comprehension. Not puny steam, nor weird -electricity, but force, kinetics—out of the universe. - -He knew. But knowing as he did, he was overcome by the horror. Such a -thing turned loose upon the earth! He had lost many hours; he had but -a few hours remaining. The thought gave him sudden energy. He seized -Winters by the arm. - -“To the first town, Bob. To the first town—an aerodome.” - -There was speed in that motor for all its decades. Winters turned -about and shot out in a lateral course parallel to the great chasm. -But for all his speed he could not keep back his question. - -“In the name of Heaven, Charley, what did it? What is it?” - -Came the answer; and it drove the lust of all speed through Winters: - -“Bob,” said Charley, “it is the end of the world—if we don’t make it. -But a few hours left. We must have an airplane. I must make the -mountain.” - -It was enough for Wild Bob. He settled down. It was only an old -runabout; but he could get speed out of a wheelbarrow. He had never -driven a race like this. Just once did he speak. The words were -characteristic. - -“A world’s record, Charley. And we’re going to win. Just watch us.” - -And they did. - -There was no time lost in the change. The mere fact of Huyck’s name, -his appearance and the manner of his arrival was enough. For the last -hours messages had been pouring in at every post in the Rocky -Mountains for Charley Huyck. After the failure of all others many -thousands had thought of him. - -Even the government, unappreciative before, had awakened to a belated -and almost frantic eagerness. Orders were out that everything, no -matter what, was to be at his disposal. He had been regarded as -visionary; but in the face of what had occurred, visions were now the -most practical things for mankind. Besides, Professor Williams had -sent out to the world the strange portent of Huyck’s note. For years -there had been mystery on that mountain. Could it be? - -Unfortunately we cannot give it the description we would like to give. -Few men outside of the regular employees have ever been to the -Mountain of Robold. From the very first, owing perhaps to the great -forces stored, and the danger of carelessness, strangers and visitors -had been barred. Then, too, the secrecy of Dr. Robold—and the respect -of his successor. But we do know that the burning glass had grown into -the mountain. - -Bob Winters and the aviator are the only ones to tell us; the -employees, one and all, chose to remain. The cataclysm that followed -destroyed the work of Huyck and Robold—but not until it had served the -greatest deed that ever came out of the minds of men. And had it not -been for Huyck’s insistence we would not have even the account that we -are giving. - -It was he who insisted, nay, begged, that his companions return while -there was yet a chance. Full well he knew. Out of the universe, out of -space he had coaxed the forces that would burn up the earth. The great -ball of luminous opalescence, and the diminishing ocean! - -There was but one answer. Through the imaginative genius of Robold and -Huyck, fate had worked up to the moment. The lad and the burning glass -had grown to Archimedes. - -What happened? - -The plane neared the Mountain of Robold. The great bald summit and the -four enormous globes of crystal. At least we so assume. We have -Winter’s word and that of the aviator that they were of the appearance -of glass. Perhaps they were not; but we can assume it for description. -So enormous that were they set upon a plain they would have overtopped -the highest building ever constructed; though on the height of the -mountain, and in its contrast, they were not much more than golf -balls. - -It was not their size but their effect that was startling. They were -alive. At least that is what we have from Winters. Living, luminous, -burning, twisting within with a thousand blending, iridescent -beautiful colors. Not like electricity but something infinitely more -powerful. Great mysterious magnets that Huyck had charged out of -chaos. Glowing with the softest light; the whole mountain brightened -as in a dream, and the town of Robold at its base lit up with a beauty -that was past beholding. - -It was new to Winters. The great buildings and the enormous machinery. -Engines of strangest pattern, driven by forces that the rest of the -world had not thought of. Not a sound; the whole works a complicated -mass covering a hundred acres, driving with a silence that was magic. -Not a whir nor friction. Like a living composite body pulsing and -breathing the strange and mysterious force that had been evolved from -Huyck’s theory of kinetics. The four great steel conduits running from -the globes down the side of the mountain. In the center, at a point -midway between the globes, a massive steel needle hung on a pivot and -pointed directly at the sun. - -Winters and the aviator noted it and wondered. From the lower end of -the needle was pouring a luminous stream of pale-blue opalescence, a -stream much like a liquid, and of an unholy radiance. But it was not a -liquid, nor fire, nor anything seen by man before. - -It was force. We have no better description than the apt phrase of -Winters. Charley Huyck was milking the sun, as it dropped from the end -of the four living streams to the four globes that took it into -storage. The four great, wonderful living globes; the four batteries; -the very sight of their imprisoned beauty and power was magnetic. - -The genius of Huyck and Robold! Nobody but the wildest dreamers would -have conceived it. The life of the sun. And captive to man; at his -will and volition. And in the next few minutes we were to lose it all! -But in losing it we were to save ourselves. It was fate and nothing -else. - -There was but one thing more upon the mountain—the observatory and -another needle apparently idle; but with a point much like a gigantic -phonograph needle. It rose square out of the observatory, and to -Winters it gave an impression of a strange gun, or some implement for -sighting. - -That was all. Coming with the speed that they were making, the airmen -had no time for further investigation. But even this is comprehensive. -Minus the force. If we only knew more about that or even its theory we -might perhaps reconstruct the work of Charley Huyck and Dr. Robold. - -They made the landing. Winters, with his nature, would be in at the -finish; but Charley would not have it. - -“It is death, Bob,” he said. “You have a wife and babies. Go back to -the world. Go back with all the speed you can get out of your motors. -Get as far away as you can before the end comes.” - -With that he bade them a sad farewell. It was the last spoken word -that the outside world had from Charley Huyck. - -The last seen of him he was running up the steps of his office. As -they soared away and looked back they could see men, the employees, -scurrying about in frantic haste to their respective posts and -stations. What was it all about? Little did the two aviators know. -Little did they dream that it was the deciding stroke. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE MOST TERRIFIC MOMENT IN HISTORY - - -Still the great ball of Opalescence brooding over the Sargasso. Europe -now was frozen, and though it was midsummer had gone into winter -quarters. The Straits of Dover were no more. The waters had receded -and one could walk, if careful, dryshod from the shores of France to -the chalk cliffs of England. The Straits of Gibraltar had dried up. -The Mediterranean completely land-locked, was cut off forever from the -tides of the mother ocean. - -The whole world going dry; not in ethics, but in reality. The great -Vampire, luminous, beautiful beyond all ken and thinking, drinking up -our lifeblood. The Atlantic a vast whirlpool. - -A strange frenzy had fallen over mankind: men fought in the streets -and died in madness. It was fear of the Great Unknown, and hysteria. -At such a moment the veil of civilization was torn to tatters. Man was -reverting to the primeval. - -Then came the word from Charley Huyck; flashing and repeating to every -clime and nation. In its assurance it was almost as miraculous as the -Vampire itself. For man had surrendered. - - To the People of the World: - - The strange and terrible Opalescence which, for the past - seventy hours, has been playing havoc with the world, is - not miracle, nor of the supernatural, but a mere - manifestation and result of the application of celestial - kinetics. Such a thing always was and always will be - possible where there is intelligence to control and - harness the forces that lie about us. Space is not space - exactly, but an infinite cistern of unknown laws and - forces. We may control certain laws on earth, but until we - reach out farther we are but playthings. - - Man is the intelligence of the earth. The time will come - when he must be the intelligence of a great deal of space - as well. At the present time you are merely fortunate and - a victim of a kind fate. That I am the instrument of the - earth’s salvation is merely chance. The real man is Dr. - Robold. When he picked me up on the streets I had no idea - that the sequence of time would drift to this moment. He - took me into his work and taught me. - - Because he was sensitive and was laughed at, we worked in - secret. And since his death, and out of respect to his - memory, I have continued in the same manner. But I have - written down everything, all the laws, computations, - formulas—everything; and I am now willing it to mankind. - - Robold had a theory on kinetics. It was strange at first - and a thing to laugh at; but he reduced it to laws as - potent and as inexorable as the laws of gravitation. - - The luminous Opalescence that has almost destroyed us is - but one of its minor manifestations. It is a message of - sinister intelligence; for back of it all is an - Intelligence. Yet it is not all sinister. It is - self-preservation. The time is coming when eons of ages - from now our own man will be forced to employ just such a - weapon for his own preservation. Either that or we shall - die of thirst and agony. - - Let me ask you to remember now, that whatever you have - suffered, you have saved a world. I shall now save you and - the earth. - - In the vaults you will find everything. All the knowledge - and discoveries of the great Dr. Robold, plus a few minor - findings by myself. - - And now I bid you farewell. You shall soon be - free. Charley Huyck. - -A strange message. Spoken over the wireless and flashed to every -clime, it roused and revived the hope of mankind. Who was this Charley -Huyck? Uncounted millions of men had never heard his name; there were -but few, very few who had. - -A message out of nowhere and of very dubious and doubtful explanation. -Celestial kinetics! Undoubtedly. But the words explained nothing. -However, man was ready to accept anything, so long as it saved him. - -For a more lucid explanation we must go back to the Arizona -observatory and Professor Ed. Williams. And a strange one it was -truly; a certain proof that consciousness is more potent, far more so -than mere material; also that many laws of our astronomers are very -apt to be overturned in spite of their mathematics. - -Charley Huyck was right. You cannot measure intelligence with a -yard-stick. Mathematics do not lie; but when applied to consciousness -they are very likely to kick backward. That is precisely what had -happened. - -The suddenness of Huyck’s departure had puzzled Professor Williams; -that, and the note which he found upon the table. It was not like -Charley to go off so in the stress of a moment. He had not even taken -the time to get his hat and coat. Surely something was amiss. - -He read the note carefully, and with a deal of wonder. - -“Look these up. Keep by the lens. If the world goes up you will know I -have not reached the mountain.” - -What did he mean? Besides, there was no data for him to work on. He -did not know that an errant breeze had plumped the information behind -the bookcase. Nevertheless he went into the observatory, and for the -balance of the night stuck by the lens. - -Now there are uncounted millions of stars in the sky. Williams had -nothing to go by. A needle in the hay-stack were an easy task compared -with the one that he was allotted. The flaming mystery, whatever it -was that Huyck had seen, was not caught by the professor. Still, he -wondered. “If the world goes up you will know I have not reached the -mountain.” What was the meaning? - -But he was not worried. The professor loved Huyck as a visionary and -smiled not a little at his delightful fancies. Doubtless this was one -of them. It was not until the news came flashing out of Oakland that -he began to take it seriously. Then followed the disappearance of -Mount Heckla. “If the world goes up”—it began to look as if the words -had meaning. - -There was a frantic professor during the next few days. When he was -not with the lens he was flashing out messages to the world for -Charley Huyck. He did not know that Huyck was lying unconscious and -almost dead upon the desert. That the world was coming to catastrophe -he knew full well; but where was the man to save it? And most of all, -what had his friend meant by the words, “look these up”? - -Surely there must be some further information. Through the long, long -hours he stayed with the lens and waited. And he found nothing. - -It was three days. Who will ever forget them? Surely not Professor -Williams. He was sweating blood. The whole world was going to pieces -without the trace of an explanation. All the mathematics, all the -accumulations of the ages had availed for nothing. Charley Huyck held -the secret. It was in the stars, and not an astronomer could find it. - -But with the seventeenth hour came the turn of fortune. The professor -was passing through the office. The door was open, and the same fitful -wind which had played the original prank was now just as fitfully -performing restitution. Williams noticed a piece of paper protruding -from the back of the bookcase and fluttering in the breeze. He picked -it up. The first words that he saw were in the handwriting of Charley -Huyck. He read: - -“In the last extremity—in the last phase when there is no longer any -water on the earth; when even the oxygen of the atmospheric envelope -has been reduced to a minimum—man, or whatever form of intelligence is -then upon the earth, must go back to the laws which governed his -forebears. Necessity must ever be the law of evolution. There will be -no water upon the earth, but there will be an unlimited quantity -elsewhere. - -“By that time, for instance, the great planet, Jupiter, will be in -just a convenient state for exploitation. Gaseous now, it will be, by -that time, in just about the stage when the steam and water are -condensing into ocean. Eons of millions of years away in the days of -dire necessity. By that time the intelligence and consciousness of the -earth will have grown equal to the task. - -“It is a thing to laugh at (perhaps) just at present. But when we -consider the ratio of man’s advance in the last hundred years, what -will it be in a billion? Not all the laws of the universe have been -discovered, by any means. At present we know nothing. Who can tell? - -“Aye, who can tell? Perhaps we ourselves have in store the fate we -would mete out to another. We have a very dangerous neighbor close -beside us. Mars is in dire straits for water. And we know there is -life on Mars and intelligence! The very fact on its face proclaims it. -The oceans have dried up; the only way they have of holding life is by -bringing their water from the polar snow-caps. Their canals pronounce -an advanced state of cooperative intelligence; there is life upon Mars -and in an advanced stage of evolution. - -“But how far advanced? It is a small planet, and consequently eons of -ages in advance of the earth’s evolution. In the nature of things Mars -cooled off quickly, and life was possible there while the earth was -yet a gaseous mass. She has gone to her maturity and into her -retrogression; she is approaching her end. She has had less time to -produce intelligence than intelligence will have—in the end—upon the -earth. - -“How far has this intelligence progressed? That is the question. -Nature is a slow worker. It took eons of ages to put life upon the -earth; it took eons of more ages to make this life conscious. How far -will it go? How far has it gone on Mars?” - -That was as far the the comments went. The professor dropped his eyes -to the rest of the paper. It was a map of the face of Mars, and across -its center was a black cross scratched by the dull point of a soft -pencil. - -He knew the face of Mars. It was the Ascræus Lucus. The oasis at the -juncture of a series of canals running much like the spokes of a -wheel. The great Uranian and Alander Canals coming in at about right -angles. - -In two jumps the professor was in the observatory with the great lens -swung to focus. It was the great moment out of his lifetime, and the -strangest and most eager moment, perhaps, ever lived by any -astronomer. His fingers fairly twitched with tension. There before his -view was the full face of our Martian neighbor! - -But was it? He gasped out a breath of startled exclamation. Was it -Mars that he gazed at; the whole face, the whole thing had been -changed before him. - -Mars has ever been red. Viewed through the telescope it has had the -most beautiful tinge imaginable, red ochre, the weird tinge of the -desert in sunset. The color of enchantment and of hell! - -For it is so. We know that for ages and ages the planet has been -burning up; that life was possible only in the dry sea-bottoms and -under irrigation. The rest, where the continents once were, was -blazing desert. The redness, the beauty, the enchantment that we so -admired was burning hell. - -All this had changed. - -Instead of this was a beautiful shade of iridescent green. The red was -gone forever. The great planet standing in the heavens had grown into -infinite glory. Like the great Dog Star transplanted. - -The professor sought out the Ascræus Lucus. It was hard to find. The -whole face had been transfigured; where had been canals was now the -beautiful sheen of green and verdure. He realized what he was -beholding and what he had never dreamed of seeing; the seas of Mars -filled up. - -With the stolen oceans our grim neighbor had come back to youth. But -how had it been done. It was horror for our world. The great -luminescent ball of Opalescence! Europe frozen and New York a mass of -ice. It was the earth’s destruction. How long could the thing keep up; -and whence did it come? What was it? - -He sought for the Ascræus Lucus. And he beheld a strange sight. At the -very spot where should have been the juncture of the canals he caught -what at first looked like a pin-point flame, a strange twinkling light -with flitting glow of Opalescence. He watched it, and he wondered. It -seemed to the professor to grow; and he noticed that the green about -it was of different color. It was winking, like a great force, and -much as if alive; baneful. - -It was what Charley Huyck had seen. The professor thought of Charley. -He had hurried to the mountain. What could Huyck, a mere man, do -against a thing like this? There was naught to do but sit and watch it -drink of our lifeblood. And then— - -It was the message, the strange assurance that Huyck was flashing over -the world. There was no lack of confidence in the words he was -speaking. “Celestial Kinetics,” so that was the answer! Certainly it -must be so with the truth before him. Williams was a doubter no -longer. And Charley Huyck could save them. The man he had humored. -Eagerly he waited and stuck by the lens. The whole world waited. - -It was perhaps the most terrific moment since creation. To describe it -would be like describing doomsday. We all of us went through it, and -we all of us thought the end had come; that the earth was torn to -atoms and to chaos. - -The State of Colorado was lurid with a red light of terror; for a -thousand miles the flame shot above the earth and into space. If ever -spirit went out in glory that spirit was Charley Huyck! He had come to -the moment and to Archimedes. The whole world rocked to the recoil. -Compared to it the mightiest earthquake was but a tender shiver. The -consciousness of the earth had spoken! - -The professor was knocked upon the floor. He knew not what had -happened. Out of the windows and to the north the flame of Colorado, -like the whole world going up. It was the last moment. But he was a -scientist to the end. He had sprained his ankle and his face was -bleeding; but for all that he struggled, fought his way to the -telescope. And he saw: - -The great planet with its sinister, baleful, wicked light in the -center, and another light vastly larger covering up half of Mars. What -was it? It was moving. The truth set him almost to shouting. - -It was the answer of Charley Huyck and of the world. The light grew -smaller, smaller, and almost to a pin-point on its way to Mars. - -The real climax was in silence. And of all the world only Professor -Williams beheld it. The two lights coalesced and spread out; what it -was on Mars, of course, we do not know. - -But in a few moments all was gone. Only the green of the Martian Sea -winked in the sunlight. The luminous opal was gone from the Sargasso. -The ocean lay in peace. - -It was a terrible three days. Had it not been for the work of Robold -and Huyck life would have been destroyed. The pity of it that all of -their discoveries have gone with them. Not even Charley realized how -terrific the force he was about to loosen. - -He had carefully locked everything in vaults for a safe delivery to -man. He had expected death, but not the cataclysm. The whole of Mount -Robold was shorn away; in its place we have a lake fifty miles in -diameter. - -So much for celestial kinetics. - -And we look to a green and beautiful Mars. We hold no enmity. It was -but the law of self-preservation. Let us hope they have enough water; -and that their seas will hold. We don’t blame them, and we don’t blame -ourselves, either for that matter. We need what we have, and we hope -to keep it. - - (The End.) - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO SAVED THE EARTH *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. 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Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/67146-0.zip b/old/67146-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d2a8cbe..0000000 --- a/old/67146-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/67146-h.zip b/old/67146-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 0b73750..0000000 --- a/old/67146-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/67146-h/67146-h.htm b/old/67146-h/67146-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 07d2fc5..0000000 --- a/old/67146-h/67146-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2632 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<head> - <meta charset="UTF-8" /> - <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man Who Saved the Earth, by Austin Hall</title> - <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover" /> - <style> - body { margin-left:8%; margin-right:8%; } - p { text-indent:1.15em; margin-top:0.1em; margin-bottom:0.1em; text-align:justify; } - h2 { text-align:center; font-weight:normal; page-break-before: always; - font-size:1.0em; margin-top:3em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } - h2.nobreak { page-break-before: avoid; } - div.section { page-break-before:always; margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:4em; } - div.chapter { page-break-before:always; margin-top:4em; margin-bottom:4em; } - .ce { text-align:center; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; } - h1 { text-align:center; font-weight:normal; font-size:1.2em; margin-top:1em; } - </style> -</head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man Who Saved the Earth, by Austin Hall</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Man Who Saved the Earth</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Austin Hall</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 11, 2022 [eBook #67146]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Roger Frank and Sue Clark</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WHO SAVED THE EARTH ***</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div class='ce'> -<h1 style='margin-bottom:0.7em;'>The Man Who Saved the Earth </h1> -<div style='margin-bottom:0.5em;'>by Austin Hall </div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<figure style='margin-left:15%; width:70%;'> - <img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%; border:1px solid black' /> - <figcaption style='text-align:justify; font-size:0.9em'> - Not a sound; the whole works a complicated mass covering - a hundred acres, driving with a silence that was magic. - Not a whir nor friction. Like a living composite body - pulsing and breathing the strange and mysterious force - that had been evolved from Huyck’s theory of kinetics. - The four great steel conduits running from the globes - down the side of the mountain. In the center at a point - midway between the globes, a massive steel needle hung - on a pivot and pointed directly at the sun. - </figcaption> -</figure> -</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<blockquote> -<p><i>We read of the days when the powers of radium were yet unknown. It is -told us that burns were produced by incautiously carrying a tube of -radium salts in the pocket. And here in this story we are told of a -different power, opalescence, due to another element. It can destroy -mountains, excavate cavities of immeasurable depths and kill human -beings and animals in multitude. The story opens with a poor little -boy experimenting with a burning glass. Then he becomes the hero of -the story—he studies and eventually finds himself able to destroy the -earth. He exceeds Archimedes in his power. And he suddenly finds that -he has unlocked a power that threatens this very destruction. And the -story depicts his horror at the Frankenstein which he had unloosed, -and tells of his wild efforts to save humanity, and of the loss of the -cosmic discoveries of the little newsboy grown up to be a great -scientist.</i></p> - -</blockquote> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chI' title='I—The Beginning'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER I</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE BEGINNING</span> -</h2> -<p>Even the beginning. From the start the whole thing has the precision -of machine work. Fate and its working—and the wonderful Providence -which watches over Man and his future. The whole thing unerring: the -incident, the work, the calamity, and the martyr. In the retrospect of -disaster we may all of us grow strong in wisdom. Let us go into -history.</p> - -<p>A hot July day. A sun of scant pity, and a staggering street; panting -thousands dragging along, hatless; fans and parasols; the sultry -vengeance of a real day of summer. A day of bursting tires; hot -pavements, and wrecked endeavor, heartaches for the seashore, for -leafy bowers beside rippling water, a day of broken hopes and listless -ambition.</p> - -<p>Perhaps Fate chose the day because of its heat and because of its -natural benefit on fecundity. We have no way of knowing. But we do -know this: the date, the time, the meeting; the boy with the burning -glass and the old doctor. So commonplace, so trivial and hidden in -obscurity! Who would have guessed it? Yet it is—after the creation—one -of the most important dates in the world’s history.</p> - -<p>This is saying a whole lot. Let us go into it and see what it amounts -to. Let us trace the thing out in history, weigh it up and balance it -with sequence.</p> - -<p>Of Charley Huyck we know nothing up to this day. It is a thing which, -for some reason, he has always kept hidden. Recent investigation as to -his previous life and antecedents have availed us nothing. Perhaps he -could have told us; but as he has gone down as the world’s great -martyr, there is no hope of gaining from his lips what we would so -like to know.</p> - -<p>After all, it does not matter. We have the day—the incident, and its -purport, and its climax of sequence to the day of the great disaster. -Also we have the blasted mountains and the lake of blue water which -will ever live with his memory. His greatness is not of warfare, nor -personal ambition; but of all mankind. The wreaths that we bestow upon -him have no doubtful color. The man who saved the earth!</p> - -<p>From such a beginning, Charley Huyck, lean and frail of body, with, -even then, the wistfulness of the idealist, and the eyes of a poet. -Charley Huyck, the boy, crossing the hot pavement with his pack of -papers; the much treasured piece of glass in his pocket, and the sun -which only he should master burning down upon him. A moment out of the -ages; the turning of a straw destined to out-balance all the previous -accumulation of man’s history.</p> - -<p>The sun was hot and burning, and the child—he could not have been more -than ten—cast a glance over his shoulder. It was in the way of -calculation. In the heyday of childhood he was not dragged down by the -heat and weather: he had the enthusiasm of his half-score of years and -the joy of the plaything. We will not presume to call it the spirit of -the scientist, though it was, perhaps, the spark of latent -investigation that was destined to lead so far.</p> - -<p>A moment picked out of destiny! A boy and a plaything. Uncounted -millions of boys have played with glass and the sun rays. Who cannot -remember the little, round-burning dot in the palm of the hand and the -subsequent exclamation? Charley Huyck had found a new toy, it was a -simple thing and as old as glass. Fate will ever be so in her working.</p> - -<p>And the doctor? Why should he have been waiting? If it was not -destiny, it was at least an accumulation of moment. In the heavy -eye-glasses, the square, close-cut beard; and his uncompromising -fact-seeking expression. Those who knew Dr. Robold are strong in the -affirmation that he was the antithesis of all emotion. He was the -sternest product of science: unbending, hardened by experiment, and -caustic in his condemnation of the frailness of human nature.</p> - -<p>It had been his one function to topple over the castles of the -foolish; with his hard-seeing wisdom he had spotted sophistry where we -thought it not. Even into the castles of science he had gone like a -juggernaut. It is hard to have one’s theories derided—yea, even for a -scientist—and to be called a fool! Dr. Robold knew no middle -language;he was not relished by science.</p> - -<p>His memory, as we have it, is that of an eccentric. A man of slight -compassion, abrupt of manner and with no tact in speaking. Genius is -often so; it is a strange fact that many of the greatest of men have -been denied by their fellows. A great man and laughter. He was not -accepted.</p> - -<p>None of us know to-day what it cost Dr. Robold. He was not the man to -tell us. Perhaps Charley Huyck might; but his lips are sealed forever. -We only know that he retired to the mountain, and of the subsequent -flood of benefits that rained upon mankind. And we still denied him. -The great cynic on the mountain. Of the secrets of the place we know -little. He was not the man to accept the investigator; he despised the -curious. He had been laughed at—let be—he would work alone on the -great moment of the future.</p> - -<p>In the light of the past we may well bend knee to the doctor and his -protégé, Charley Huyck. Two men and destiny! What would we be without -them? One shudders to think.</p> - -<p>A little thing, and yet one of the greatest moments in the world’s -history. It must have been Fate. Why was it that this stern man, who -hated all emotion, should so have unbended at this moment? That we -cannot answer. But we can conjecture. Mayhap it is this: We were all -wrong; we accepted the man’s exterior and profession as the fact of -his marrow.</p> - -<p>No man can lose all emotion. The doctor, was, after all, even as -ourselves—he was human. Whatever may be said, we have the certainty of -that moment—and of Charley Huyck.</p> - -<p>The sun’s rays were hot; they were burning; the pavements were -intolerable; the baked air in the canyoned street was dancing like -that of an oven; a day of dog-days. The boy crossing the street; his -arms full of papers, and the glass bulging in his little hip-pocket.</p> - -<p>At the curb he stopped. With such a sun it was impossible to long -forget his plaything. He drew it carefully out of his pocket, lay down -a paper and began distancing his glass for the focus. He did not -notice the man beside him. Why should he? The round dot, the brownish -smoke, the red spark and the flash of flame! He stamped upon it. A -moment out of boyhood; an experimental miracle as old as the age of -glass, and just as delightful. The boy had spoiled the name of a great -Governor of a great State; but the paper was still salable. He had had -his moment. Mark that moment.</p> - -<p>A hand touched his shoulder. The lad leaped up. “Yessir. <i>Star</i> or -<i>Bulletin</i>?”</p> - -<p>“I’ll take one of each,” said the man. “There now. I was just watching -you. Do you know what you were doing?”</p> - -<p>“Yessir. Burning paper. Startin’ fire. That’s the way the Indians did -it.”</p> - -<p>The man smiled at the perversion of fact. There is not such a distance -between sticks and glass in the age of childhood.</p> - -<p>“I know,” he said—“the Indians. But do you know how it was done; the -why—why the paper began to blaze?”</p> - -<p>“Yessir.”</p> - -<p>“All right, explain.”</p> - -<p>The boy looked up at him. He was a city boy and used to the streets. -Here was some old high-brow challenging his wisdom. Of course he knew. -“It’s the sun.”</p> - -<p>“There,” laughed the man. “Of course. You said you knew, but you -don’t. Why doesn’t the sun, without the glass, burn the paper? Tell me -that.”</p> - -<p>The boy was still looking up at him; he saw that the man was not like -the others on the street. It may be that the strange intimacy kindled -into being at that moment. Certainly it was a strange unbending for -the doctor.</p> - -<p>“It would if it was hot enough or you could get enough of it -together.”</p> - -<p>“Ah! Then that is what the glass is for, is it?”</p> - -<p>“Yessir.”</p> - -<p>“Concentration?”</p> - -<p>“Con— I don’t know, sir. But it’s the sun. She’s sure some hot. I know -a lot about the sun, sir. I’ve studied it with the glass. The glass -picks up all the rays and puts them in one hole and that’s what burns -the paper.</p> - -<p>“It’s lots of fun. I’d like to have a bigger one; but it’s all I’ve -got. Why, do you know, if I had a glass big enough and a place to -stand, I’d burn up the earth?”</p> - -<p>The old man laughed. “Why, Archimedes! I thought you were dead.”</p> - -<p>“My name ain’t Archimedes. It’s Charley Huyck.”</p> - -<p>Again the old man laughed.</p> - -<p>“Oh, is it? Well, that’s a good name, too. And if you keep on you’ll -make it famous as the name of the other.” Wherein he was foretelling -history. “Where do you live?”</p> - -<p>The boy was still looking. Ordinarily he would not have told, but he -motioned back with his thumb.</p> - -<p>“I don’t live; I room over on Brennan Street.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I see. You room. Where’s your mother?”</p> - -<p>“Search me; I never saw her.”</p> - -<p>“I see; and your father?”</p> - -<p>“How do I know. He went floating when I was four years old.”</p> - -<p>“Floating?”</p> - -<p>“Yessir—to sea.”</p> - -<p>“So your mother’s gone and your father’s floating. Archimedes is -adrift. You go to school?”</p> - -<p>“Yessir”</p> - -<p>“What reader?”</p> - -<p>“No reader. Sixth grade.”</p> - -<p>“I see. What school?”</p> - -<p>“School Twenty-six. Say, it’s hot. I can’t stand here all day. I’ve -got to sell my papers.”</p> - -<p>The man pulled out a purse.</p> - -<p>“I’ll take the lot,” he said. Then kindly: “My boy, I would like to -have you go with me.”</p> - -<p>It was a strange moment. A little thing with the fates looking on. -When destiny plays she picks strange moments. This was one. Charley -Huyck went with Dr. Robold.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chII' title='II—The Poison Pall'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER II</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE POISON PALL</span> -</h2> -<p>We all of us remember that fatal day when the news startled all of -Oakland. No one can forget it. At first it read like a newspaper hoax, -in spite of the oft-proclaimed veracity of the press, and we were -inclined to laughter. ’Twixt wonder at the story and its -impossibilities we were not a little enthused at the nerve of the man -who put it over.</p> - -<p>It was in the days of dry reading. The world had grown populous and of -well-fed content. Our soap-box artists had come to the point at last -where they preached, not disaster, but a full-bellied thanks for the -millennium that was here. A period of Utopian quietness—no villain -around the corner; no man to covet the ox of his neighbor.</p> - -<p>Quiet reading, you’ll admit. Those were the days of the millennium. -Nothing ever happened. Here’s hoping they never come again. And then:</p> - -<p>Honestly, we were not to blame for bestowing blessing out of our -hearts upon that newspaperman. Even if it were a hoax, it was at least -something.</p> - -<p>At high noon. The clock in the city hall had just struck the hour that -held the post ’twixt a.m. and p.m., a hot day with a sky that was -clear and azure; a quiet day of serene peace and contentment. A -strange and a portent moment. Looking back and over the miracle we may -conjecture that it was the clearness of the atmosphere and the -brightness of the sun that helped to the impact of the disaster. -Knowing what we know now we can appreciate the impulse of natural -phenomena. It was <i>not</i> a miracle.</p> - -<p>The spot: Fourteenth and Broadway, Oakland, California.</p> - -<p>Fortunately the thousands of employees in the stores about had not yet -come out for their luncheons. The lapse that it takes to put a hat on, -or to pat a ribbon, saved a thousand lives. One shudders to think of -what would have happened had the spot been crowded. Even so, it was -too impossible and too terrible to be true. Such things could not -happen.</p> - -<p>At high noon: Two street-cars crossing Fourteenth on Broadway—two cars -with the same joggle and bump and the same aspect of any of a hundred -thousand at a traffic corner. The wonder is—there were so few people. -A Telegraph car outgoing, and a Broadway car coming in. The traffic -policeman at his post had just given his signal. Two automobiles were -passing and a single pedestrian, so it is said, was working his way -diagonally across the corner. Of this we are not certain.</p> - -<p>It was a moment that impinged on miracle. Even as we recount it, -knowing, as we do, the explanation, we sense the impossibility of the -event. A phenomenon that holds out and, in spite of our findings, -lingers into the miraculous. To be and not to be. One moment life and -action, an ordinary scene of existent monotony; and the next moment -nothing. The spot, the intersection of the street, the passing -street-cars, the two automobiles, pedestrian, the -policeman—non-existent! When events are instantaneous reports are apt -to be misleading. This is what we find.</p> - -<p>Some of those who beheld it, report a flash of bluish white light; -others that it was of a greenish or even a violet hue; and others, no -doubt of stronger vision, that it was not only of a predominant color -but that it was shot and sparkled with a myriad specks of flame and -burning.</p> - -<p>It gave no warning and it made no sound; not even a whir. Like a hot -breath out of the void. Whatever the forces that had focused, they -were destruction. There was no Fourteenth and Broadway. The two -automobiles, the two street-cars, the pedestrian, the policeman had -been whiffed away as if they had never existed. In place of the -intersection of the thoroughfares was a yawning gulf that looked down -into the center of the earth to a depth of nausea.</p> - -<p>It was instantaneous; it was without sound; no warning. A tremendous -force of unlimited potentiality had been loosed to kinetic violence. -It was the suddenness and the silence that belied credence. We were -accustomed to associate all disaster with confusion; calamity has an -affinity with pandemonium, all things of terror climax into sound. In -this case there was no sound. Hence the wonder.</p> - -<p>A hole or bore forty feet in diameter. Without a particle of warning -and without a bit of confusion. The spectators one and all aver that -at first they took it for nothing more than the effect of startled -eyesight. Almost subtle. It was not until after a full minute’s -reflection that they became aware that a miracle had been wrought -before their faces. Then the crowd rushed up and with awe and now -awakened terror gazed down into that terrible pit.</p> - -<p>We say “Terrible” because in this case it is an exact adjective. The -strangest hole that man ever looked into. It was so deep that at first -it appeared to have no bottom; not even the strongest eyesight could -penetrate the smoldering blackness that shrouded the depths -descending. It took a stout heart and courage to stand and hold one’s -head on the brink for even a minute.</p> - -<p>It was straight and precipitous; a perfect circle in shape; with sides -as smooth as the effect of machine work, the pavement and stone curb -had been cut as if by a razor. Of the two street-cars, two automobiles -and their occupants there was nothing. The whole thing so silent and -complete. Not even the spectators could really believe it.</p> - -<p>It was a hard thing to believe. The newspapers themselves, when the -news came clamoring, accepted it with reluctance. It was too much like -a hoax. Not until the most trusted reporters had gone and had wired in -their reports would they even consider it. Then the whole world sat up -and took notice.</p> - -<p>A miracle! Like Oakland’s Press we all of us doubted that hole. We had -attained almost everything that was worth the knowing; we were the -masters of the earth and its secrets and we were proud of our wisdom; -naturally we refused such reports all out of reason. It must be a -hoax.</p> - -<p>But the wires were persistent. Came corroboration. A reliable -news-gathering organization soon was coming through with elaborate and -detailed accounts of just what was happening. We had the news from the -highest and most reputable authority.</p> - -<p>And still we doubted. It was the story itself that brought the -doubting; its touch on miracle. It was too easy to pick on the -reporter. There might be a hole, and all that; but this thing of no -explanation! A bomb perhaps? No noise? Some new explosive? No such -thing? Well, how did we know? It was better than a miracle.</p> - -<p>Then came the scientists. As soon as could be men of great minds had -been hustled to the scene. The world had long been accustomed to -accept without quibble the dictum of these great specialists of fact. -With their train of accomplishments behind them we would hardly be -consistent were we to doubt them.</p> - -<p>We know the scientist and his habits. He is the one man who will -believe nothing until it is proved. It is his profession, and for that -we pay him. He can catch the smallest bug that ever crawled out of an -atom and give it a name so long that a Polish wrestler, if he had to -bear it, would break under the burden. It is his very knack of getting -in under that has given us our civilization. You don’t baffle a -scientist in our Utopia. It can’t be done. Which is one of the very -reasons why we began to believe in the miracle.</p> - -<p>In a few moments a crowd of many thousands had gathered about the -spot; the throng grew so dense that there was peril of some of them -being crowded into the pit at the center. It took all the spare -policemen of the city to beat them back far enough to string ropes -from the corners. For blocks the streets were packed with wondering -thousands. Street traffic was impossible. It was necessary to divert -the cars to a roundabout route to keep the arteries open to the -suburbs.</p> - -<p>Wild rumors spread over the city. No one knew how many passengers had -been upon the street-cars. The officials of the company, from the -schedule, could pick the numbers of the cars and their crews; but who -could tell of the occupants?</p> - -<p>Telephones rang with tearful pleadings. When the first rumors of the -horror leaked out every wife and mother felt the clutch of panic at -her heartstrings. It was a moment of historical psychology. Out of our -books we had read of this strange phase of human nature that was wont -to rise like a mad screeching thing out of disaster. We had never had -it in Utopia.</p> - -<p>It was rumbling at first and out of exaggeration; as the tale passed -farther back to the waiting thousands it gained with the repetition. -Grim and terrible enough in fact, it ratioed up with reiteration. -Perhaps after all it was not psychology. The average impulse of the -human mind does not even up so exactly. In the light of what we now -know it may have been the poison that had leaked into the air; the new -element that was permeating the atmosphere of the city.</p> - -<p>At first it was spasmodic. The nearest witnesses of the disaster were -the first victims. A strange malady began to spot out among those of -the crowd who had been at the spot of contact. This is to be noticed. -A strange affliction which from the virulence and rapidity of action -was quite puzzling to the doctors.</p> - -<p>Those among the physicians who would consent to statement gave it out -that it was breaking down of tissue. Which of course it was; the new -element that was radiating through the atmosphere of the city. They -did not know it then.</p> - -<p>The pity of it! The subtle, odorless pall was silently shrouding out -over the city. In a short time the hospitals were full and it was -necessary to call in medical aid from San Francisco. They had not even -time for diagnosis. The new plague was fatal almost at conception. -Happily the scientists made the discovery.</p> - -<p>It was the pall. At the end of three hours it was known that the death -sheet was spreading out over Oakland. We may thank our stars that it -was learned so early. Had the real warning come a few hours later the -death list would have been appalling.</p> - -<p>A new element had been discovered; or if not a new element, at least -something which was tipping over all the laws of the atmospheric -envelope. A new combination that was fatal. When the news and the -warning went out, panic fell upon the bay shore.</p> - -<p>But some men stuck. In the face of such terror there were those who -stayed and with grimness and sacrifice hung to their posts for -mankind. There are some who had said that the stuff of heroes had -passed away. Let them then consider the case of John Robinson.</p> - -<p>Robinson was a telegraph operator. Until that day he was a poor -unknown; not a whit better than his fellows. Now he has a name that -will run in history. In the face of what he knew he remained under the -blanket. The last words out of Oakland—his last message:</p> - -<p>“Whole city of Oakland in grip of strange madness. Keep out of -Oakland,”—following which came a haphazard personal commentary:</p> - -<p>“I can feel it coming on myself. It is like what our ancestors must -have felt when they were getting drunk—alternating desires of fight -and singing—a strange sensation, light, and ecstatic with a spasmodic -twitching over the forehead. Terribly thirsty. Will stick it out if I -can get enough water. Never so dry in my life.”</p> - -<p>Followed a lapse of silence. Then the last words: “I guess we’re done -for. There is some poison in the atmosphere—something. It has leaked, -of course, out of this thing at Fourteenth and Broadway. Dr. Manson of -the American Institute says it is something new that is forming a -fatal combination; but he cannot understand a new element; the -quantity is too enormous.</p> - -<p>“Populace has been warned out of the city. All roads are packed with -refugees. The Berkeley Hills are covered as with flies—north, east, -and south and on the boats to Frisco. The poison, whatever it is, is -advancing in a ring from Fourteenth and Broadway. You have got to pass -it to these old boys of science. They are staying with that ring. -Already they have calculated the rate of its advance and have given -warning. They don’t know what it is, but they have figured just how -fast it is moving. They have saved the city.</p> - -<p>“I am one of the few men now inside the wave. Out of curiosity I have -stuck. I have a jug and as long as it lasts I shall stay. Strange -feeling. Dry, dry, dry, as if the juice of one’s life cells was -turning into dust. Water evaporating almost instantly. It cannot pass -through glass. Whatever the poison it has an affinity for moisture. Do -not understand it. I have had enough—”</p> - -<p>That was all. After that there was no more news out of Oakland. It is -the only word that we have out of the pall itself. It was short and -disconnected and a bit slangy; but for all that a basis from which to -conjecture.</p> - -<p>It is a strange and glorious thing how some men will stick to the post -of danger. This operator knew that it meant death; but he held with -duty. Had he been a man of scientific training his information might -have been of incalculable value. However, may God bless his heroic -soul!</p> - -<p>What we know is thirst! The word that came from the experts confirmed -it. Some new element of force was stealing or sapping the humidity out -of the atmosphere. Whether this was combining and entering into a -poison could not be determined.</p> - -<p>Chemists worked frantically at the outposts of the advancing ring. In -four hours it had covered the city; in six it had reached San Leandro, -and was advancing on toward Haywards.</p> - -<p>It was a strange story and incredible from the beginning. No wonder -the world doubted. Such a thing had never happened. We had accepted -the law of judging the future by the past; by deduction; we were used -to sequence and to law; to the laws of Nature. This thing did look -like a miracle; which was merely because—as usually it is with -“miracles”—we could not understand it. Happily, we can look back now -and still place our faith in Nature.</p> - -<p>The world doubted and was afraid. Was this peril to spread slowly over -the whole state of California and then on to the—world. Doubt always -precedes terror. A tense world waited. Then came the word of -reassurance—from the scientists:</p> - -<p>“Danger past; vigor of the ring is abating. Calculation has deduced -that the wave is slowly decreasing in potentiality. It is too early -yet to say that there will be recessions, as the wave is just reaching -its zenith. What it is we cannot say; but it cannot be inexplicable. -After a little time it will all be explained. Say to the world there -is no cause for alarm.”</p> - -<p>But the world was now aroused; as it doubted the truth before, it -doubted now the reassurance. Did the scientists know? Could they have -only seen the future! We know now that they did not. There was but one -man in all the world great enough to foresee disaster. That man was -Charley Huyck.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIII' title='III—The Mountain That Was'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER III</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE MOUNTAIN THAT WAS</span> -</h2> -<p>On the same day on which all this happened, a young man, Pizzozi by -name and of Italian parentage, left the little town of Ione in Amador -County, California, with a small truck-load of salt. He was one of the -cattlemen whose headquarters or home-farms are clustered about the -foothills of the Sierras. In the wet season they stay with their -home-land in the valley; in the summer they penetrate into the -mountains. Pizzozi had driven in from the mountains the night before, -after salt. He had been on the road since midnight.</p> - -<p>Two thousand salt-hungry cattle do not allow time for gossip. With the -thrift of his race, Joe had loaded up his truck and after a running -snatch at breakfast was headed back into the mountains. When the news -out of Oakland was thrilling around the world he was far into the -Sierras.</p> - -<p>The summer quarters of Pizzozi were close to Mt. Heckla, whose looming -shoulders rose square in the center of the pasture of the three -brothers. It was not a noted mountain—that is, until this day—and had -no reason for a name other than that it was a peak outstanding from -the range; like a thousand others, rugged, pine clad, coated with -deer-brush, red soil, and mountain miserie.</p> - -<p>It was the deer-brush that gave it value to the Pizzozis—a succulent -feed richer than alfalfa. In the early summer they would come up with -bony cattle. When they returned in the fall they went out driving -beef-steaks. But inland cattle must have more than forage. Salt is the -tincture that makes them healthy.</p> - -<p>It was far past the time of the regular salting. Pizzozi was in a -hurry. It was nine o’clock when he passed through the mining town of -Jackson; and by twelve o’clock—the minute of the disaster—he was well -beyond the last little hamlet that linked up with civilization. It was -four o’clock when he drew up at the little pine-sheltered cabin that -was his headquarters for the summer.</p> - -<p>He had been on the road since midnight. He was tired. The long weary -hours of driving, the grades, the unvaried stress though the deep red -dust, the heat, the stretch of a night and day had worn both mind and -muscle. It had been his turn to go after salt; now that he was here, -he could lie in for a bit of rest while his brothers did the salting.</p> - -<p>It was a peaceful spot! this cabin of the Pizzozis; nestled among the -virgin shade trees, great tall feathery sugar-pines with a mountain -live oak spreading over the door yard. To the east the rising heights -of the Sierras, misty, gray-green, undulating into the distance to the -pink-white snow crests of Little Alpine. Below in the canyon, the -waters of the Mokolumne; to the west the heavy dark masses of Mt. -Heckla, deep verdant in the cool of coming evening.</p> - -<p>Joe drew up under the shade of the live oak. The air was full of cool, -sweet scent of the afternoon. No moment could have been more peaceful; -the blue clear sky overhead, the breath of summer, and the soothing -spice of the pine trees. A shepherd dog came bounding from the doorway -to meet him.</p> - -<p>It was his favorite cow dog. Usually when Joe came back the dog would -be far down the road to forestall him. He had wondered, absently, -coming up, at the dog’s delay. A dog is most of all a creature of -habit; only something unusual would detain him. However the dog was -here; as the man drew up he rushed out to greet him. A rush, a circle, -a bark, and a whine of welcome. Perhaps the dog had been asleep.</p> - -<p>But Joe noticed that whine; he was wise in the ways of dogs; when -Ponto whined like that there was something unusual. It was not -effusive or spontaneous; but rather of the delight of succor. After -scarce a minute of petting, the dog squatted and faced to the -westward. His whine was startling; almost fearful.</p> - -<p>Pizzozi knew that something was wrong. The dog drew up, his stub tail -erect, and his hair all bristled; one look was for his master and the -other whining and alert to Mt. Heckla. Puzzled, Joe gazed at the -mountain. But he saw nothing.</p> - -<p>Was it the canine instinct, or was it coincidence? We have the account -from Pizzozi. From the words of the Italian, the dog was afraid. It -was not the way of Ponto; usually in the face of danger he was alert -and eager; now he drew away to the cabin. Joe wondered.</p> - -<p>Inside the shack he found nothing but evidence of departure. There was -no sign of his brothers. It was his turn to go to sleep; he was -wearied almost to numbness, for forty-eight hours he had not closed an -eyelid. On the table were a few unwashed dishes and crumbs of eating. -One of the three rifles that hung usually on the wall was missing; the -coffee pot was on the floor with the lid open. On the bed the -coverlets were mussed up. It was a temptation to go to sleep. Back of -him the open door and Ponto. The whine of the dog drew his will and -his consciousness into correlation. A faint rustle in the sugar-pines -soughed from the canyon.</p> - -<p>Joe watched the dog. The sun was just glowing over the crest of the -mountain; on the western line the deep lacy silhouettes of the pine -trees and the bare bald head of Heckla. What was it? His brothers -should be on hand for the salting; it was not their custom to put -things off for the morrow. Shading his eyes he stepped out of the -doorway.</p> - -<p>The dog rose stealthily and walked behind him, uneasily, with the same -insistent whine and ruffled hair. Joe listened. Only the mountain -murmurs, the sweet breath of the forest, and in the lapse of bated -breath the rippling melody of the river far below him.</p> - -<p>“What you see, Ponto? What you see?”</p> - -<p>At the words the dog sniffed and advanced slightly—a growl and then a -sudden scurry to the heels of his master. Ponto was afraid. It puzzled -Pizzozi. But whatever it was that roused his fear, it was on Mt. -Heckla.</p> - -<p>This is one of the strange parts of the story—the part the dog played, -and what came after. Although it is a trivial thing it is one of the -most inexplicable. Did the dog sense it? We have no measure for the -range of instinct, but we do have it that before the destruction of -Pompeii the beasts roared in their cages. Still, knowing what we now -know, it is hard to accept the analogy. It may, after all have been -coincidence.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless it decided Pizzozi. The cattle needed salt. He would -catch up his pinto and ride over to the salt logs.</p> - -<p>There is no moment in the cattle industry quite like the salting on -the range. It is not the most spectacular perhaps, but surely it is -not lacking in intenseness. The way of Pizzozi was musical even if not -operatic. He had a long-range call, a rising rhythm that for depth and -tone had a peculiar effect on the shattered stillness. It echoed and -reverberated, and pealed from the top to the bottom of the mountain. -The salt call is the talisman of the mountains.</p> - -<p>“<i>Alleewahoo!</i>”</p> - -<p>Two thousand cattle augmented by a thousand strays held up their heads -in answer. The sniff of the welcome salt call! Through the whole range -of the man’s voice the stock stopped in their leafy pasture and -listened.</p> - -<p>“<i>Alleewahoo!</i>”</p> - -<p>An old cow bellowed. It was the beginning of bedlam. From the bottom -of the mountain to the top and for miles beyond went forth the salt -call. Three thousand head bellowed to the delight of salting.</p> - -<p>Pizzozi rode along. Each lope of his pinto through the tall tangled -miserie was accented. “<i>Alleewahoo! Alleewahoo!</i>” The rending of -brush, the confusion, and pandemonium spread to the very bottom of the -leafy gulches. It is no place for a pedestrian. Heads and tails erect, -the cattle were stampeding toward the logs.</p> - -<p>A few head had beat him to it. These he quickly drove away and cut the -sack open. With haste he poured it upon the logs; then he rode out of -the dust that for yards about the place was tramped to the finest -powder. The center of a herd of salting range stock is no place for -comfort. The man rode away; to the left he ascended a low knob where -he would be safe from the stampede; but close enough to distinguish -the brands.</p> - -<p>In no time the place was alive with milling stock. Old cows, heifers, -bulls, calves, steers rushed out of the crashing brush into the -clearing. There is no moment exactly like it. What before had been a -broad clearing of brownish reddish dust was trampled into a vast cloud -of bellowing blur, a thousand cattle, and still coming. From the -farthest height came the echoing call. Pizzozi glanced up at the top -of the mountain.</p> - -<p>And then a strange thing happened.</p> - -<p>From what we gathered from the excited accounts of Pizzozi it was -instantaneous; and yet by the same words it was of such a peculiar and -beautiful effect as never to be forgotten. A bluish azure shot though -with a myriad flecks of crimson, a peculiar vividness of opalescence; -the whole world scintillating; the sky, the air, the mountain, a vast -flame of color so wide and so intense that there seemed not a thing -beside it. And instantaneous—it was over almost before it was started. -No noise or warning, and no subsequent detonation: as silent as -winking and much, indeed, like the queer blur of color induced by -defective vision. All in the fraction of a second. Pizzozi had been -gazing at the mountain. There was no mountain!</p> - -<p>Neither were there cattle. Where before had been the shade of the -towering peak was now the rays of the western sun. Where had been the -blur of the milling herd and its deafening pandemonium was now a -strange silence. The transparency of the air was unbroken into the -distance. Far off lay a peaceful range in the sunset. There was no -mountain! Neither were there cattle!</p> - -<p>For a moment the man had enough to do with his plunging mustang. In -the blur of the subsequent second Pizzozi remembers nothing but a -convulsion of fighting horseflesh bucking, twisting, plunging, the -gentle pinto suddenly maddened into a demon. It required all the skill -of the cowman to retain his saddle.</p> - -<p>He did not know that he was riding on the rim of Eternity. In his mind -was the dim subconscious realization of a thing that had happened. In -spite of all his efforts the horse fought backward. It was some -moments before he conquered. Then he looked.</p> - -<p>It was a slow, hesitant moment. One cannot account for what he will do -in the open face of a miracle. What the Italian beheld was enough for -terror. The sheer immensity of the thing was too much for thinking.</p> - -<p>At the first sight his simplex mind went numb from sheer impotence; -his terror to a degree frozen. The whole of Mt. Heckla had been shorn -away; in the place of its darkened shadow the sinking sun was blinking -in his face; the whole western sky all golden. There was no vestige of -the flat salt-clearing at the base of the mountain. Of the two -thousand cattle milling in the dust not a one remained. The man -crossed himself in stupor. Mechanically he put the spurs to the pinto.</p> - -<p>But the mustang would not. Another struggle with bucking, fighting, -maddened horseflesh. The cowman must needs bring in all the skill of -his training; but by the time he had conquered his mind had settled -within some scope of comprehension.</p> - -<p>The pony had good reasons for his terror. This time though the man’s -mind reeled it did not go dumb at the clash of immensity. Not only had -the whole mountain been torn away, but its roots as well. The whole -thing was up-side down; the world torn to its entrails. In place of -what had been the height was a gulf so deep that its depths were -blackness.</p> - -<p>He was standing on the brink. He was a cool man, was Pizzozi; but it -was hard in the confusion of such a miracle to think clearly; much -less to reason. The prancing mustang was snorting with terror. The man -glanced down.</p> - -<p>The very dizziness of the gulf, sheer, losing itself into shadows and -chaos overpowered him, his mind now clear enough for perception reeled -at the distance. The depth was nauseating. His whole body succumbed to -a sudden qualm of weakness: the sickness that comes just before -falling. He went limp in the saddle.</p> - -<p>But the horse fought backward; warned by instinct it drew back from -the sheer banks of the gulf. It had no reason but its nature. At the -instant it sensed the snapping of the iron will of its master. In a -moment it had turned and was racing on its wild way out of the -mountains. At supreme moments a cattle horse will always hit for home. -The pinto and its limp rider were fleeing on the road to Jackson.</p> - -<p>Pizzozi had no knowledge of what had occurred in Oakland. To him the -whole thing had been but a flash of miracle; he could not reason. He -did not curb his horse. That he was still in the saddle was due more -to the near-instinct of his training than to his volition.</p> - -<p>He did not even draw up at the cabin. That he could make better time -with his motor than with his pinto did not occur to him; his mind was -far too busy; and, now that the thing was passed, too full of terror. -It was forty-four miles to town; it was night and the stars were -shining when he rode into Jackson.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIV' title='IV—“Man—A Great Little Bug”'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER IV</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>“MAN—A GREAT LITTLE BUG”</span> -</h2> -<p>And what of Charley Huyck? It was his anticipation, and his training -which leaves us here to tell the story. Were it not for the strange -manner of his rearing, and the keen faith and appreciation of Dr. -Robold there would be to-day no tale to tell. The little incident of -the burning glass had grown. If there is no such thing as Fate there -is at least something that comes very close to being Destiny.</p> - -<p>On this night we find Charley at the observatory in Arizona. He is a -grown man and a great one, and though mature not so very far drawn -from the lad we met on the street selling papers. Tall, slender, very -slightly stooped and with the same idealistic, dreaming eyes of the -poet. Surely no one at first glance would have taken him for a -scientist. Which he was and was not.</p> - -<p>Indeed, there is something vastly different about the science of -Charley Huyck. Science to be sure, but not prosaic. He was the first -and perhaps the last of the school of Dr. Robold, a peculiar -combination of poetry and fact, a man of vision, of vast, far-seeing -faith and idealism linked and based on the coldest and sternest truths -of materialism. A peculiar tenet of the theory of Robold: “True -science to be itself should be half poetry.” Which any of us who have -read or been at school know it is not. It is a peculiar theory and -though rather wild still with some points in favor.</p> - -<p>We all of us know our schoolmasters; especially those of science and -what they stand for. Facts, facts, nothing but facts; no dreams or -romance. Looking back we can grant them just about the emotions of -cucumbers. We remember their cold, hard features, the prodding after -fact, the accumulation of data. Surely there is no poetry in them.</p> - -<p>Yet we must not deny that they have been by far the most potent of all -men in the progress of civilization. Not even Robold would deny it.</p> - -<p>The point is this:</p> - -<p>The doctor maintained that from the beginning the progress of material -civilization had been along three distinct channels; science, -invention, and administration. It was simply his theory that the first -two should be one; that the scientist deal not alone with dry fact but -with invention, and that the inventor, unless he is a scientist, has -mastered but half his trade. “The really great scientist should be a -visionary,” said Robold, “and an inventor is merely a poet, with -tools.”</p> - -<p>Which is where we get Charley Huyck. He was a visionary, a scientist, -a poet with tools, the protege of Dr. Robold. He dreamed things that -no scientist had thought of. And we are thankful for his dreaming.</p> - -<p>The one great friend of Huyck was Professor Williams, a man from -Charley’s home city, who had known him even back in the days of -selling papers. They had been cronies in boyhood, in their teens, and -again at College. In after years, when Huyck had become the visionary, -the mysterious Man of the Mountain, and Williams a great professor of -astronomy, the friendship was as strong as ever.</p> - -<p>But there was a difference between them. Williams was exact to -acuteness, with not a whit of vision beyond pure science. He had been -reared in the old stone-cold theory of exactness; he lived in figures. -He could not understand Huyck or his reasoning. Perfectly willing to -follow as far as facts permitted he refused to step off into -speculation.</p> - -<p>Which was the point between them. Charley Huyck had vision; although -exact as any man, he had ever one part of his mind soaring out into -speculation. What is, and what might be, and the gulf between. To -bridge the gulf was the life work of Charley Huyck.</p> - -<p>In the snug little office in Arizona we find them; Charley with his -feet poised on the desk and Williams precise and punctilious, true to -his training, defending the exactness of his philosophy. It was the -cool of the evening; the sun was just mellowing the heat of the -desert. Through the open door and windows a cool wind was blowing. -Charley was smoking; the same old pipe had been the bane of Williams’s -life at college.</p> - -<p>“Then we know?” he was asking.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” spoke the professor, “what we know, Charley, we know; though of -course it is not much. It is very hard, nay impossible, to deny -figures. We have not only the proofs of geology but of astronomical -calculation, we have facts and figures plus our sidereal relations all -about us.</p> - -<p>“The world must come to an end. It is a hard thing to say it, but it -is a fact of science. Slowly, inevitably, ruthlessly, the end will -come. A mere question of arithmetic.”</p> - -<p>Huyck nodded. It was his special function in life to differ with his -former roommate. He had come down from his own mountain in Colorado -just for the delight of difference.</p> - -<p>“I see. Your old calculations of tidal retardation. Or if that doesn’t -work the loss of oxygen and the water.”</p> - -<p>“Either one or the other; a matter of figures; the earth is being -drawn every day by the sun: its rotation is slowing up; when the time -comes it will act to the sun in exactly the same manner as the moon -acts to the earth to-day.”</p> - -<p>“I understand. It will be a case of eternal night for one side of the -earth, and eternal day for the other. A case of burn up or freeze up.”</p> - -<p>“Exactly. Of if it doesn’t reach to that, the water gas will gradually -lose out into sidereal space and we will go to desert. Merely a -question of the old dynamical theory of gases; of the molecules to be -in motion, to be forever colliding and shooting out into variance.</p> - -<p>“Each minute, each hour, each day we are losing part of our -atmospheric envelope. In course of time it will all be gone; when it -is we shall be all desert. For instance, take a look outside. This is -Arizona. Once it was the bottom of a deep blue sea. Why deny when we -can already behold the beginning.”</p> - -<p>The other laughed.</p> - -<p>“Pretty good mathematics at that, professor. Only—”</p> - -<p>“Only?”</p> - -<p>“That it is merely mathematics.”</p> - -<p>“Merely mathematics?” The professor frowned slightly. “Mathematics do -not lie, Charlie, you cannot get away from them. What sort of fanciful -argument are you bringing up now?”</p> - -<p>“Simply this,” returned the other, “that you depend too much on -figures. They are material and in the nature of things can only be -employed in a calculation of what may happen in the future. You must -have premises to stand on, facts. Your figures are rigid: they have no -elasticity; unless your foundations are permanent and faultless your -deductions will lead you only into error.”</p> - -<p>“Granted; just the point: we know where we stand. Wherein are we in -error?”</p> - -<p>It was the old point of difference. Huyck was ever crashing down the -idols of pure materialism. Williams was of the world-wide school.</p> - -<p>“You are in error, my dear professor, in a very little thing and a -very large one.”</p> - -<p>“What is that?”</p> - -<p>“Man.”</p> - -<p>“Man?”</p> - -<p>“Yes. He’s a great little bug. You have left him out of your -calculation—which he will upset.”</p> - -<p>The professor smiled indulgently. “I’ll allow; he is at least a -conceited bug; but you surely cannot grant him much when pitted -against the Universe.”</p> - -<p>“No? Did it ever occur to you. Professor, what the Universe is? The -stars for instance? Space, the immeasurable distance of Infinity. Have -you never dreamed?”</p> - -<p>Williams could not quite grasp him. Huyck had a habit that had grown -out of childhood. Always he would allow his opponent to commit -himself. The professor did not answer. But the other spoke.</p> - -<p>“Ether. You know it. Whether mind or granite. For instance, your -desert.” He placed his finger to his forehead. “Your mind, my -mind—localized ether.”</p> - -<p>“What are you driving at?”</p> - -<p>“Merely this. Your universe has intelligence. It has mind as well as -matter. The little knot called the earth is becoming conscious. Your -deductions are incompetent unless they embrace mind as well as matter, -and they cannot do it. Your mathematics are worthless.”</p> - -<p>The professor bit his lip.</p> - -<p>“Always fanciful.” he commented, “and visionary. Your argument is -beautiful, Charley, and hopeful. I would that it were true. But all -things must mature. Even an earth must die.”</p> - -<p>“Not our earth. You look into the past, professor, for your proof, and -I look into the future. Give a planet long enough time in maturing and -it will develop life; give it still longer and it will produce -intelligence. Our own earth is just coming into consciousness; it has -thirty million years, at least, to run.”</p> - -<p>“You mean?”</p> - -<p>“This. That man is a great little bug. Mind: the intelligence of the -earth.”</p> - -<p>This of course is a bit dry. The conversation of such men very often -is to those who do not care to follow them. But it is very pertinent -to what came after. We know now, everyone knows, that Charley Huyck -was right. Even Professor Williams admits it. Our earth is conscious. -In less than twenty-four hours it had to employ its consciousness to -save itself from destruction.</p> - -<p>A bell rang. It was the private wire that connected the office with -the residence. The professor picked up the receiver. “Just a minute. -Yes? All right.” Then to his companion: “I must go over to the house, -Charley. We have plenty of time. Then we can go up to the -observatory.”</p> - -<p>Which shows how little we know about ourselves. Poor Professor -Williams! Little did he think that those casual words were the last he -would ever speak to Charley Huyck.</p> - -<p>The whole world seething! The beginning of the end! Charley Huyck in -the vortex. The next few hours were to be the most strenuous of the -planet’s history.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chV' title='V—Approaching Disaster'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER V</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>APPROACHING DISASTER</span> -</h2> -<p>It was night. The stars which had just been coming out were spotted by -millions over the sleeping desert. One of the nights that are peculiar -to the country, which we all of us know so well, if not from -experience, at least from hearsay; mellow, soft, sprinkled like salted -fire, twinkling.</p> - -<p>Each little light a message out of infinity. Cosmic grandeur; mind: -chaos, eternity—a night for dreaming. Whoever had chosen the spot in -the desert had picked full well. Charley had spoken of consciousness. -On that night when he gazed up at the stars he was its -personification. Surely a good spirit was watching over the earth.</p> - -<p>A cool wind was blowing; on its breath floated the murmurs from the -village; laughter, the song of children, the purring of motors and the -startled barking of a dog; the confused drone of man and his -civilization. From the eminence the observatory looked down upon the -town and the sheen of light, spotting like jewels in the dim glow of -the desert. To the east the mellow moon just tipping over the -mountain. Charley stepped to the window.</p> - -<p>He could see it all. The subtle beauty that was so akin to poetry: the -stretch of desert, the mountains, the light in the eastern sky; the -dull level shadow that marked the plain to the northward. To the west -the mountains looming black to the star line. A beautiful night; -sweetened with the breath of desert and tuned to its slumber.</p> - -<p>Across the lawn he watched the professor descending the pathway under -the acacias. An automobile was coming up the driveway; as it drove up -under the arcs he noticed its powerful lines and its driver; one of -those splendid pleasure cars that have returned to favor during the -last decade; the soft purr of its motor, the great heavy tires and its -coating of dust. There is a lure about a great car coming in from the -desert. The car stopped, Charley noted. Doubtless some one for -Williams. If it were, he would go into the observatory alone.</p> - -<p>In the strict sense of the word Huyck was not an astronomer. He had -not made it his profession. But for all that he knew things about the -stars that the more exact professors had not dreamed of. Charley was a -dreamer. He had a code all his own and a manner of reasoning. Between -him and the stars lay a secret.</p> - -<p>He had not divulged it, or if he had, it was in such an open way that -it was laughed at. It was not cold enough in calculation or, even if -so, was too far from their deduction. Huyck had imagination; his -universe was alive and potent; it had intelligence. Matter could not -live without it. Man was its manifestation; just come to -consciousness. The universe teemed with intelligence. Charley looked -at the stars.</p> - -<p>He crossed the office, passed through the reception-room and thence to -the stairs that led to the observatory. In the time that would lapse -before the coming of his friend he would have ample time for -observation. Somehow he felt that there was time for discovery. He had -come down to Arizona to employ the lens of his friend the astronomer. -The instrument that he had erected on his own mountain in Colorado had -not given him the full satisfaction that he expected. Here in Arizona, -in the dry clear air, which had hitherto given such splendid results, -he hoped to find what he was after. But little did he expect to -discover the terrible thing he did.</p> - -<p>It is one of the strangest parts of the story that he should be here -at the very moment when Fate and the world’s safety would have had -him. For years he and Dr. Robold had been at work on their visionary -projects. They were both dreamers. While others had scoffed they had -silently been at their great work on kinetics.</p> - -<p>The boy and the burning glass had grown under the tutelage of Dr. -Robold: the time was about at hand when he could out-rival the saying -of Archimedes. Though the world knew it not, Charley Huyck had arrived -at the point where he could literally burn up the earth.</p> - -<p>But he was not sinister; though he had the power he had of course not -the slightest intention. He was a dreamer and it was part of his dream -that man break his thraldom to the earth and reach out into the -universe. It was a great conception and were it not for the terrible -event which took his life we have no doubt but that he would have -succeeded.</p> - -<p>It was ten-thirty when he mounted the steps and seated himself. He -glanced at his watch: he had a good ten minutes. He had computed -before just the time for the observation. For months he had waited for -just this moment; he had not hoped to be alone and now that he was in -solitary possession he counted himself fortunate. Only the stars and -Charley Huyck knew the secret; and not even he dreamed what it would -amount to.</p> - -<p>From his pocket he drew a number of papers; most of them covered with -notations; some with drawings; and a good sized map in colors. This he -spread before him, and with his pencil began to draw right across its -face a net of lines and cross lines. A number of figures and a rapid -computation. He nodded and then he made the observation.</p> - -<p>It would have been interesting to study the face of Charley Huyck -during the next few moments. At first he was merely receptive, his -face placid but with the studious intentness of one who has come to -the moment: and as he began to find what he was after—an eagerness of -satisfaction. Then a queer blankness; the slight movement of his body -stopped, and the tapping of his feet ceased entirely.</p> - -<p>For a full five minutes an absolute intentness. During that time he -was out among the stars beholding what not even he had dreamed of. It -was more than a secret: and what it was only Charley Huyck of all the -millions of men could have recognized. Yet it was more than even he -had expected. When he at last drew away his face was chalk-like; great -drops of sweat stood on his forehead: and the terrible truth in his -eyes made him look ten years older.</p> - -<p>“My God!”</p> - -<p>For a moment indecision and strange impotence. The truth he had beheld -numbed action; from his lips the mumbled words:</p> - -<p>“This world; my world; our great and splendid mankind!”</p> - -<p>A sentence that was despair and a benediction.</p> - -<p>Then mechanically he turned back to confirm his observation. This -time, knowing what he would see, he was not so horrified: his mind was -cleared by the plain fact of what he was beholding. When at last he -drew away his face was settled.</p> - -<p>He was a man who thought quickly—thank the stars for that—and, once he -thought, quick to spring to action. There was a peril poising over the -earth. If it were to be voided there was not a second to lose in -weighing up the possibilities.</p> - -<p>He had been dreaming all his life. He had never thought that the -climax was to be the very opposite of what he hoped for. In his under -mind he prayed for Dr. Robold—dead and gone forever. Were he only here -to help him!</p> - -<p>He seized a piece of paper. Over its white face he ran a mass of -computations. He worked like lightning; his fingers plying and his -mind keyed to the pin-point of genius. Not one thing did he overlook -in his calculation. If the earth had a chance he would find it.</p> - -<p>There are always possibilities. He was working out the odds of the -greatest race since creation. While the whole world slept, while the -uncounted millions lay down in fond security, Charley Huyck there in -the lonely room on the desert drew out their figured odds to the point -of infinity.</p> - -<p>“Just one chance in a million.”</p> - -<p>He was going to take it. The words were not out of his mouth before -his long legs were leaping down the stairway. In the flash of seconds -his mind was rushing into clear action. He had had years of dreaming; -all his years of study and tutelage under Robold gave him just the -training for such a disaster.</p> - -<p>But he needed time. Time! Time! Why was it so precious? He must get to -his own mountain. In six jumps he was in the office.</p> - -<p>It was empty. The professor had not returned. He thought rather grimly -and fleetingly of their conversation a few minutes before; what would -Williams think now of science and consciousness? He picked up the -telephone receiver. While he waited he saw out of the corner of his -eye the car in the driveway. It was—</p> - -<p>“Hello. The professor? What? Gone down to town? No! Well, say, this is -Charley”—he was watching the car in front of the building. “Say, -hello—tell him I have gone home, home! H-o-m-e to Colorado—to -Colorado, yes—to the mountain—the m-o-u-n-t-a-i-n. Oh, never mind—I’ll -leave a note.</p> - -<p>He clamped down the receiver. On the desk he scrawled on a piece of -paper:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p style='text-indent:0'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Ed</span>:</p> - -<p>“Look these up. I’m bound for the mountain. No time to explain. -There’s a car outside. Stay with the lens. Don’t leave it. If the -earth goes up you will know that I have not reached the mountain.”</p> - -</blockquote> -<p>Beside the note he placed one of the maps that he had in his -pocket—with his pencil drew a black cross just above the center. Under -the map were a number of computations.</p> - -<p>It is interesting to note that in the stress of the great critical -moment he forgot the professor’s title. It was a good thing. When -Williams read it he recognized the significance. All through their -life in crucial moments he had been “Ed.” to Charley.</p> - -<p>But the note was all he was destined to find. A brisk wind was -blowing. By a strange balance of fate the same movement that let Huyck -out of the building ushered in the wind and upset calculation.</p> - -<p>It was a little thing, but it was enough to keep all the world in -ignorance and despair. The eddy whisking in through the door picked up -the precious map, poised it like a tiny plane, and dropped it neatly -behind a bookcase.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVI' title='VI—A Race To Save The World'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VI</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>A RACE TO SAVE THE WORLD</span> -</h2> -<p>Huyck was working in a straight line. Almost before his last words on -the phone were spoken he had requisitioned that automobile outside; -whether money or talk, faith or force, he was going to have it. The -hum of the motor sounded in his ears as he ran down the steps. He was -hatless and in his shirt-sleeves. The driver was just putting some -tools in the car. With one jump Charley had him by the collar.</p> - -<p>“Five thousand dollars if you can get me to Robold Mountain in twenty -hours.”</p> - -<p>The very suddenness of the rush caught the man by surprise and lurched -him against the car, turning him half around. Charley found himself -gazing into dull brown eyes and sardonic laughter: a long, thin nose -and lips drooped at the corners, then as suddenly tipping up—a queer -creature, half devil, half laughter, and all fun.</p> - -<p>“Easy, Charley, easy! How much did you say? Whisper it.”</p> - -<p>It was Bob Winters. Bob Winters and his car. And waiting. Surely no -twist of fortune could have been greater. He was a college chum of -Huyck’s and of the professor’s. If there was one man that could make -the run in the time allotted, Bob was he. But Huyck was impersonal. -With the burden on his mind he thought of naught but his destination.</p> - -<p>“Ten thousand!” he shouted.</p> - -<p>The man held back his head. Huyck was far too serious to appreciate -mischief. But not the man.</p> - -<p>“Charley Huyck, of all men. Did young Lochinvar come out of the West? -How much did you say? This desert air and the dust, ’tis hard on the -hearing. She must be a young, fair maiden. Ten thousand.”</p> - -<p>“Twenty thousand. Thirty thousand. Damnation, man, you can have the -mountain. Into the car.”</p> - -<p>By sheer subjective strength he forced the other into the machine. It -was not until they were shooting out of the grounds on two wheels that -he realized that the man was Bob Winters. Still the workings of fate.</p> - -<p>The madcap and wild Bob of the races! Surely Destiny was on the job. -The challenge of speed and the premium. At the opportune moment before -disaster the two men were brought together. Minutes weighed up with -centuries and hours outbalanced millenniums. The whole world slept; -little did it dream that its very life was riding north with these two -men into the midnight.</p> - -<p>Into the midnight! The great car, the pride of Winter’s heart, leaped -between the pillars. At the very outset, madcap that he was, he sent -her into seventy miles an hour; they fairly jumped off the hill into -the village. At a full seventy-five he took the curve; she skidded, -sheered half around and swept on.</p> - -<p>For an instant Charley held his breath. But the master hand held her; -she steadied, straightened, and shot out into the desert. Above the -whir of the motor, flying dust and blurring what-not, Charley got the -tones of his companion’s voice. He had heard the words somewhere in -history.</p> - -<p>“Keep your seat, Mr. Greely. Keep your seat!”</p> - -<p>The moon was now far up over the mountain, the whole desert was bathed -in a mellow twilight; in the distance the mountains brooded like an -uncertain slumbering cloud bank. They were headed straight to the -northward; though there was a better road round about. Winters had -chosen the hard, rocky bee-line to the mountain.</p> - -<p>He knew Huyck and his reputation; when Charley offered thirty thousand -for a twenty-hour drive it was not mere byplay. He had happened in at -the observatory to drop in on Williams on his way to the coast. They -had been classmates; likewise he and Charley.</p> - -<p>When the excited man out of the observatory had seized him by the -collar, Winters merely had laughed. He was the speed king. The three -boys who had gone to school were now playing with the destiny of the -earth. But only Huyck knew it.</p> - -<p>Winters wondered. Through miles and miles of fleeting sagebrush, cacti -and sand and desolation, he rolled over the problem. Steady as a rock, -slightly stooped, grim and as certain as steel he held to the north. -Charley Huyck by his side, hatless, coatless, his hair dancing to the -wind, all impatience. Why was it? Surely a man even for death would -have time to get his hat.</p> - -<p>The whole thing spelled speed to Bob Winters; perhaps it was the -infusion of spirit or the intensity of his companion; but the thrill -ran into his vitals. Thirty thousand dollars—for a stake like -that—what was the balance? He had been called Wild Bob for his daring; -some had called him insane; on this night his insanity was -enchantment.</p> - -<p>It was wild; the lee of the giant roadster a whirring shower of -gravel: into the darkness, into the night the car fought over the -distance. The terrific momentum and the friction of the air fought in -their faces; Huyck’s face was unprotected: in no time his lips were -cracked, and long before they had crossed the level his whole face was -bleeding.</p> - -<p>But he heeded it not. He only knew that they were moving; that slowly, -minute by minute, they were cutting down the odds that bore disaster. -In his mind a maze of figures; the terrible sight he had seen in the -telescope and the thing impending. Why had he kept his secret?</p> - -<p>Over and again he impeached himself and Dr. Robold. It had come to -this. The whole world sleeping and only himself to save it. Oh, for a -few minutes, for one short moment! Would he get it?</p> - -<p>At last they reached the mountains. A rough, rocky road, and but -little traveled. Happily Winters had made it once before, and knew it. -He took it with every bit of speed they could stand, but even at that -it was diminished to a minimum.</p> - -<p>For hours they fought over grades and gulches, dry washouts and -boulders. It was dawn, and the sky was growing pink when they rode -down again upon the level. It was here that they ran across their -first trouble; and it was here that Winters began to realize vaguely -what a race they might be running.</p> - -<p>The particular level which they had entered was an elbow of the desert -projecting into the mountains just below a massive, newly constructed -dam. The reservoir had but lately been filled, and all was being put -in readiness for the dedication.</p> - -<p>An immense sheet of water extending far back into the mountains—it was -intended before long to transform the desert into a garden. Below, in -the valley, was a town, already the center of a prosperous irrigation -settlement; but soon, with the added area, to become a flourishing -city. The elbow, where they struck it, was perhaps twenty miles -across. Their northward path would take them just outside the tip -where the foothills of the opposite mountain chain melted into the -desert. Without ado Winters put on all speed and plunged across the -sands. And then:</p> - -<p>It was much like winking; but for all that something far more -impressive. To Winters, on the left hand of the car and with the east -on the right hand, it was much as if the sun had suddenly leaped up -and as suddenly plumped down behind the horizon—a vast vividness of -scintillating opalescence: an azure, flaming diamond shot by a million -fire points.</p> - -<p>Instantaneous and beautiful. In the pale dawn of the desert air its -wonder and color were beyond all beauty. Winters caught it out of the -corner of his eye; it was so instantaneous and so illusive that he was -not certain. Instinctively he looked to his companion.</p> - -<p>But Charley, too, had seen it. His attitude of waiting and hoping was -vigorized into vivid action. He knew just what it was. With one hand -he clutched Winters and fairly shouted.</p> - -<p>“On, on, Bob! On, as you value your life. Put into her every bit of -speed you have got.”</p> - -<p>At the same instant, at the same breath came a roar that was not to be -forgotten; crunching, rolling, terrible—like the mountain moving.</p> - -<p>Bob knew it. It was the dam. Something had broken it. To the east the -great wall of water fall-out of the mountains! A beautiful sight and -terrible; a relentless glassy roller fringed along its base by a lace -of racing foam. The upper part was as smooth as crystal; the stored-up -waters of the mountain moving out compactly. The man thought of the -little town below and its peril. But Huyck thought also. He shouted in -Winter’s ear:</p> - -<p>“Never mind the town. Keep straight north. Over yonder to the point of -the water. The town will have to drown.”</p> - -<p>It was inexorable; there was no pity; the very strength and purpose of -the command drove into the other’s understanding. Dimly now he -realized that they were really running a race against time. Winters -was a daredevil; the very catastrophe sent a thrill of exultation -through him. It was the climax, the great moment of his life, to be -driving at a hundred miles an hour under that wall of water.</p> - -<p>The roar was terrible. Before they were half across it seemed to the -two men that the very sound would drown them. There was nothing in the -world but pandemonium. The strange flash was forgotten in the terror -of the living wall that was reaching out to engulf them. Like insects -they whizzed in the open face of the deluge. When they had reached the -tip they were so close that the outrunning fringe of the surf was at -their wheels.</p> - -<p>Around the point with the wide open plain before them. With the flood -behind them it was nothing to outrun it. The waters with a wider -stretch spread out. In a few moments they had left all behind them.</p> - -<p>But Winters wondered; what was the strange flash of evanescent beauty? -He knew this dam and its construction; to outlast the centuries. It -had been whiffed in a second. It was not lightning. He had heard no -sound other than the rush of the waters. He looked to his companion.</p> - -<p>Hucyk nodded.</p> - -<p>“That’s the thing we are racing. We have only a few hours. Can we make -it?”</p> - -<p>Bob had thought that he was getting all the speed possible out of his -motor. What it yielded from that moment on was a revelation.</p> - -<p>It is not safe and hardly possible to be driving at such speed on the -desert. Only the best car and a firm roadway can stand it. A sudden -rut, squirrel hole, or pocket of sand is as good as destruction. They -rushed on till noon.</p> - -<p>Not even Winters, with all his alertness, could avoid it. Perhaps he -was weary. The tedious hours, the racking speed had worn him to -exhaustion. They had ceased to individualize, their way a blur, a -nightmare of speed and distance.</p> - -<p>It came suddenly, a blind barranca—one of those sunken, useless -channels that are death to the unwary. No warning.</p> - -<p>It was over just that quickly. A mere flash of consciousness plus a -sensation of flying. Two men broken on the sands and the great, -beautiful roadster a twisted ruin.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVII' title='VII—A Riven Continent'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VII</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>A RIVEN CONTINENT</span> -</h2> -<p>But back to the world. No one knew about Charley Huyck nor what was -occurring on the desert. Even if we had it would have been impossible -to construe connection.</p> - -<p>After the news out of Oakland, and the destruction of Mt. Heckla, we -were far too appalled. The whole thing was beyond us. Not even the -scientists with all their data could find one thing to work on. The -wires of the world buzzed with wonder and with panic. We were -civilized. It is really strange how quickly, in spite of our boasted -powers, we revert to the primitive.</p> - -<p>Superstition cannot die. Where was no explanation must be miracle. The -thing had been repeated. When would it strike again. And where?</p> - -<p>There was not long to wait. But this time the stroke was of far more -consequence and of far more terror. The sheer might of the thing shook -the earth. Not a man or government that would not resign in the face -of such destruction.</p> - -<p>It was omnipotent. A whole continent had been riven. It would be -impossible to give description of such catastrophe; no pen can tell it -any more than it could describe the creation. We can only follow in -its path.</p> - -<p>On the morning after the first catastrophe, at eight o’clock, just -south of the little city of Santa Cruz, on the north shore of the Bay -of Monterey, the same light and the same, though not quite the same, -instantaneousness. Those who beheld it report a vast ball of azure -blue and opalescent fire and motion; a strange sensation of vitalized -vibration; of personified living force. In shape like a marble, as -round as a full moon in its glory, but of infinitely more beauty.</p> - -<p>It came from nowhere; neither from above the earth nor below it. -Seeming to leap out of nothing, it glided or rather vanished to the -eastward. Still the effect of winking, though this time, perhaps from -a distanced focus, more vivid. A dot or marble, like a full moon, -burning, opal, soaring to the eastward.</p> - -<p>And instantaneous. Gone as soon as it was come; noiseless and of -phantom beauty; like a finger of the Omnipotent tracing across the -world, and as terrible. The human mind had never conceived a thing so -vast.</p> - -<p>Beginning at the sands of the ocean the whole country had vanished; a -chasm twelve miles wide and of unknown depth running straight to the -eastward, where had been farms and homes was nothing; the mountains -had been seared like butter. Straight as an arrow.</p> - -<p>Then the roar of the deluge. The waters of the Pacific breaking -through its sands and rolling into the Gulf of Mexico. That there was -no heat was evidenced by the fact that there was no steam. The thing -could not be internal. Yet what was it?</p> - -<p>One can only conceive in figures. From the shores of Santa Cruz to the -Atlantic—a few seconds; then out into the eastern ocean straight out -into the Sea of the Sargasso. A great gulf riven straight across the -face of North America.</p> - -<p>The path seemed to follow the sun; it bore to the eastward with a -slight southern deviation. The mountains it cut like cheese. Passing -just north of Fresno it seared through the gigantic Sierras halfway -between the Yosemite and Mt. Whitney, through the great desert to -southern Nevada, thence across northern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, -Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, entering the Atlantic at -a point halfway between Brunswick and Jacksonville. A great canal -twelve miles in width linking the oceans. A cataclysmic blessing. -Today, with thousands of ships bearing freight over its water, we can -bless that part of the disaster.</p> - -<p>But there was more to come. So far the miracle had been sporadic. -Whatever had been its force it had been fatal only on point and -occasion. In a way it had been local. The deadly atmospheric -combination of its aftermath was invariable in its recession. There -was no suffering. The death that it dealt was the death of -obliteration. But now it entered on another stage.</p> - -<p>The world is one vast ball, and, though large, still a very small -place to live in. There are few of us, perhaps, who look upon it, or -even stop to think of it, as a living being. Yet it is just that. It -has its currents, life, pulse, and its fevers; it is coordinate; a -million things such as the great streams of the ocean, the swirls of -the atmosphere, make it a place to live in. And we are conscious only, -or mostly, through disaster.</p> - -<p>A strange thing happened.</p> - -<p>The great opal like a mountain of fire had riven across the continent. -From the beginning and with each succession the thing was magnified. -But it was not until it had struck the waters of the Atlantic that we -became aware of its full potency and its fatality.</p> - -<p>The earth quivered at the shock, and man stood on his toes in terror. -In twenty-four hours our civilization was literally falling to pieces. -We were powerful with the forces that we understood; but against this -that had been literally ripped from the unknown we were insignificant. -The whole world was frozen. Let us see.</p> - -<p>Into the Atlantic! The transition. Hitherto silence. But now the roar -of ten thousand million Niagaras, the waters of the ocean rolling, -catapulting, roaring into the gulf that had been seared in its bosom. -The Gulf Stream cut in two, the currents that tempered our -civilization sheared in a second. Straight into the Sargasso Sea. The -great opal, liquid fire, luminescent, a ball like the setting sun, lay -poised upon the ocean. It was the end of the earth!</p> - -<p>What was this thing? The whole world knew of it in a second. And not a -one could tell. In less than forty hours after its first appearance in -Oakland it had consumed a mountain, riven a continent, and was -drinking up an ocean. The tangled sea of the Sargasso, dead calm for -ages, was a cataract; a swirling torrent of maddened waters rushed to -the opal—and disappeared.</p> - -<p>It was hellish and out of madness; as beautiful as it was uncanny. The -opal high as the Himalayas brooding upon the water; its myriad colors -blending, winking in a phantasm of iridescence. The beauty of its -light could be seen a thousand miles. A thing out of mystery and out -of forces. We had discovered many things and knew much; but had -guessed no such thing as this. It was vampirish, and it was literally -drinking up the earth.</p> - -<p>Consequences were immediate. The point of contact was fifty miles -across, the waters of the Atlantic with one accord turned to the -magnet. The Gulf Stream veered straight from its course and out across -the Atlantic. The icy currents from the poles freed from the warmer -barrier descended along the coasts and thence out into the Sargasso -Sea. The temperature of the temperate zone dipped below the point of a -blizzard.</p> - -<p>The first word come out of London. Freezing! And in July! The fruit -and entire harvest of northern Europe destroyed. Olympic games at -Copenhagen postponed by a foot of snow. The river Seine frozen. Snow -falling in New York. Crops nipped with frost as far south as Cape -Hatteras.</p> - -<p>A fleet of airplanes was despatched from the United States and another -from the west coast of Africa. Not half of them returned. Those that -did reported even more disaster. The reports that were handed in were -appalling. They had sailed straight on. It was like flying into the -sun; the vividness of the opalescence was blinding, rising for miles -above them alluring, drawing and unholy, and of a beauty that was -terror.</p> - -<p>Only the tardy had escaped. It even drew their motors, it was like -gravity suddenly become vitalized and conscious. Thousands of machines -vaulted into the opalescence. From those ahead hopelessly drawn and -powerless came back the warning. But hundreds could not escape.</p> - -<p>“Back,” came the wireless. “Do not come too close. The thing is a -magnet. Turn back before too late. Against this man is insignificant.”</p> - -<p>Then like gnats flitting into fire they vanished into the opalescence.</p> - -<p>The others turned back. The whole world freezing shuddered in horror. -A great vampire was brooding over the earth. The greatness that man -had attained to was nothing. Civilization was tottering in a day. We -were hopeless.</p> - -<p>Then came the last revelation; the truth and verity of the disaster -and the threatened climax. The water level of all the coast had gone -down. Vast ebb tides had gone out not to return. Stretches of sand -where had been surf extended far out into the sea. Then the truth! The -thing, whatever it was, was drinking up the ocean.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVIII' title='VIII—The Man Who Saved The Earth'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VIII</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE MAN WHO SAVED THE EARTH</span> -</h2> -<p>It was tragic; grim, terrible, cosmic. Out of nowhere had come this -thing that was eating up the earth. Not a thing out of all our science -had there been to warn us; not a word from all our wise men. We who -had built up our civilization, piece by piece, were after all but -insects.</p> - -<p>We were going out in a maze of beauty into the infinity whence we -came. Hour by hour the great orb of opalescence grew in splendor; the -effect and the beauty of its lure spread about the earth; thrilling, -vibrant like suppressed music. The old earth helpless. Was it possible -that out of her bosom she could not pluck one intelligence to save -her? Was there not one law—no answer?</p> - -<p>Out on the desert with his face to the sun lay the answer. Though -almost hopeless there was still some time and enough of near-miracle -to save us. A limping fate in the shape of two Indians and a battered -runabout at the last moment.</p> - -<p>Little did the two red men know the value of the two men found that -day on the desert. To them the debris of the mighty car and the prone -bodies told enough of the story. They were Samaritans; but there are -many ages to bless them.</p> - -<p>As it was there were many hours lost. Without this loss there would -have been thousands spared and an almost immeasurable amount of -disaster. But we have still to be thankful. Charley Huyck was still -living.</p> - -<p>He had been stunned; battered, bruised, and unconscious; but he had -not been injured vitally. There was still enough left of him to drag -himself to the old runabout and call for Winters. His companion, as it -happened, was in even better shape than himself, and waiting. We do -not know how they talked the red men out of their relic—whether by -coaxing, by threat, or by force.</p> - -<p>Straight north. Two men battered, worn, bruised, but steadfast, -bearing in that limping old motorcar the destiny of the earth. Fate -was still on the job, but badly crippled.</p> - -<p>They had lost many precious hours. Winters had forfeited his right to -the thirty thousand. He did not care. He understood vaguely that there -was a stake over and above all money. Huyck said nothing; he was too -maimed and too much below will-power to think of speaking. What had -occurred during the many hours of their unconsciousness was unknown to -them. It was not until they came sheer upon the gulf that had been -riven straight across the continent that the awful truth dawned on -them.</p> - -<p>To Winters it was terrible. The mere glimpse of that blackened chasm -was terror. It was bottomless; so deep that its depths were cloudy; -the misty haze of its uncertain shadows was akin to chaos. He -understood vaguely that it was related to that terrible thing they had -beheld in the morning. It was not the power of man. Some force had -been loosened which was ripping the earth to its vitals. Across the -terror of the chasm he made out the dim outlines of the opposite wall. -A full twelve miles across.</p> - -<p>For a moment the sight overcame even Huyck himself. Full well he knew; -but knowing, as he did, the full fact of the miracle was even more -than he expected. His long years under Robold, his scientific -imagination had given him comprehension. Not puny steam, nor weird -electricity, but force, kinetics—out of the universe.</p> - -<p>He knew. But knowing as he did, he was overcome by the horror. Such a -thing turned loose upon the earth! He had lost many hours; he had but -a few hours remaining. The thought gave him sudden energy. He seized -Winters by the arm.</p> - -<p>“To the first town, Bob. To the first town—an aerodome.”</p> - -<p>There was speed in that motor for all its decades. Winters turned -about and shot out in a lateral course parallel to the great chasm. -But for all his speed he could not keep back his question.</p> - -<p>“In the name of Heaven, Charley, what did it? What is it?”</p> - -<p>Came the answer; and it drove the lust of all speed through Winters:</p> - -<p>“Bob,” said Charley, “it is the end of the world—if we don’t make it. -But a few hours left. We must have an airplane. I must make the -mountain.”</p> - -<p>It was enough for Wild Bob. He settled down. It was only an old -runabout; but he could get speed out of a wheelbarrow. He had never -driven a race like this. Just once did he speak. The words were -characteristic.</p> - -<p>“A world’s record, Charley. And we’re going to win. Just watch us.”</p> - -<p>And they did.</p> - -<p>There was no time lost in the change. The mere fact of Huyck’s name, -his appearance and the manner of his arrival was enough. For the last -hours messages had been pouring in at every post in the Rocky -Mountains for Charley Huyck. After the failure of all others many -thousands had thought of him.</p> - -<p>Even the government, unappreciative before, had awakened to a belated -and almost frantic eagerness. Orders were out that everything, no -matter what, was to be at his disposal. He had been regarded as -visionary; but in the face of what had occurred, visions were now the -most practical things for mankind. Besides, Professor Williams had -sent out to the world the strange portent of Huyck’s note. For years -there had been mystery on that mountain. Could it be?</p> - -<p>Unfortunately we cannot give it the description we would like to give. -Few men outside of the regular employees have ever been to the -Mountain of Robold. From the very first, owing perhaps to the great -forces stored, and the danger of carelessness, strangers and visitors -had been barred. Then, too, the secrecy of Dr. Robold—and the respect -of his successor. But we do know that the burning glass had grown into -the mountain.</p> - -<p>Bob Winters and the aviator are the only ones to tell us; the -employees, one and all, chose to remain. The cataclysm that followed -destroyed the work of Huyck and Robold—but not until it had served the -greatest deed that ever came out of the minds of men. And had it not -been for Huyck’s insistence we would not have even the account that we -are giving.</p> - -<p>It was he who insisted, nay, begged, that his companions return while -there was yet a chance. Full well he knew. Out of the universe, out of -space he had coaxed the forces that would burn up the earth. The great -ball of luminous opalescence, and the diminishing ocean!</p> - -<p>There was but one answer. Through the imaginative genius of Robold and -Huyck, fate had worked up to the moment. The lad and the burning glass -had grown to Archimedes.</p> - -<p>What happened?</p> - -<p>The plane neared the Mountain of Robold. The great bald summit and the -four enormous globes of crystal. At least we so assume. We have -Winter’s word and that of the aviator that they were of the appearance -of glass. Perhaps they were not; but we can assume it for description. -So enormous that were they set upon a plain they would have overtopped -the highest building ever constructed; though on the height of the -mountain, and in its contrast, they were not much more than golf -balls.</p> - -<p>It was not their size but their effect that was startling. They were -alive. At least that is what we have from Winters. Living, luminous, -burning, twisting within with a thousand blending, iridescent -beautiful colors. Not like electricity but something infinitely more -powerful. Great mysterious magnets that Huyck had charged out of -chaos. Glowing with the softest light; the whole mountain brightened -as in a dream, and the town of Robold at its base lit up with a beauty -that was past beholding.</p> - -<p>It was new to Winters. The great buildings and the enormous machinery. -Engines of strangest pattern, driven by forces that the rest of the -world had not thought of. Not a sound; the whole works a complicated -mass covering a hundred acres, driving with a silence that was magic. -Not a whir nor friction. Like a living composite body pulsing and -breathing the strange and mysterious force that had been evolved from -Huyck’s theory of kinetics. The four great steel conduits running from -the globes down the side of the mountain. In the center, at a point -midway between the globes, a massive steel needle hung on a pivot and -pointed directly at the sun.</p> - -<p>Winters and the aviator noted it and wondered. From the lower end of -the needle was pouring a luminous stream of pale-blue opalescence, a -stream much like a liquid, and of an unholy radiance. But it was not a -liquid, nor fire, nor anything seen by man before.</p> - -<p>It was force. We have no better description than the apt phrase of -Winters. Charley Huyck was milking the sun, as it dropped from the end -of the four living streams to the four globes that took it into -storage. The four great, wonderful living globes; the four batteries; -the very sight of their imprisoned beauty and power was magnetic.</p> - -<p>The genius of Huyck and Robold! Nobody but the wildest dreamers would -have conceived it. The life of the sun. And captive to man; at his -will and volition. And in the next few minutes we were to lose it all! -But in losing it we were to save ourselves. It was fate and nothing -else.</p> - -<p>There was but one thing more upon the mountain—the observatory and -another needle apparently idle; but with a point much like a gigantic -phonograph needle. It rose square out of the observatory, and to -Winters it gave an impression of a strange gun, or some implement for -sighting.</p> - -<p>That was all. Coming with the speed that they were making, the airmen -had no time for further investigation. But even this is comprehensive. -Minus the force. If we only knew more about that or even its theory we -might perhaps reconstruct the work of Charley Huyck and Dr. Robold.</p> - -<p>They made the landing. Winters, with his nature, would be in at the -finish; but Charley would not have it.</p> - -<p>“It is death, Bob,” he said. “You have a wife and babies. Go back to -the world. Go back with all the speed you can get out of your motors. -Get as far away as you can before the end comes.”</p> - -<p>With that he bade them a sad farewell. It was the last spoken word -that the outside world had from Charley Huyck.</p> - -<p>The last seen of him he was running up the steps of his office. As -they soared away and looked back they could see men, the employees, -scurrying about in frantic haste to their respective posts and -stations. What was it all about? Little did the two aviators know. -Little did they dream that it was the deciding stroke.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIX' title='IX—The Most Terrific Moment In History'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER IX</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE MOST TERRIFIC MOMENT IN HISTORY</span> -</h2> -<p>Still the great ball of Opalescence brooding over the Sargasso. Europe -now was frozen, and though it was midsummer had gone into winter -quarters. The Straits of Dover were no more. The waters had receded -and one could walk, if careful, dryshod from the shores of France to -the chalk cliffs of England. The Straits of Gibraltar had dried up. -The Mediterranean completely land-locked, was cut off forever from the -tides of the mother ocean.</p> - -<p>The whole world going dry; not in ethics, but in reality. The great -Vampire, luminous, beautiful beyond all ken and thinking, drinking up -our lifeblood. The Atlantic a vast whirlpool.</p> - -<p>A strange frenzy had fallen over mankind: men fought in the streets -and died in madness. It was fear of the Great Unknown, and hysteria. -At such a moment the veil of civilization was torn to tatters. Man was -reverting to the primeval.</p> - -<p>Then came the word from Charley Huyck; flashing and repeating to every -clime and nation. In its assurance it was almost as miraculous as the -Vampire itself. For man had surrendered.</p> - -<blockquote> -<p style='text-indent:0'>To the People of the World:</p> - -<p>The strange and terrible Opalescence which, for the past seventy -hours, has been playing havoc with the world, is not miracle, nor of -the supernatural, but a mere manifestation and result of the -application of celestial kinetics. Such a thing always was and always -will be possible where there is intelligence to control and harness -the forces that lie about us. Space is not space exactly, but an -infinite cistern of unknown laws and forces. We may control certain -laws on earth, but until we reach out farther we are but playthings.</p> - -<p>Man is the intelligence of the earth. The time will come when he must -be the intelligence of a great deal of space as well. At the present -time you are merely fortunate and a victim of a kind fate. That I am -the instrument of the earth’s salvation is merely chance. The real man -is Dr. Robold. When he picked me up on the streets I had no idea that -the sequence of time would drift to this moment. He took me into his -work and taught me.</p> - -<p>Because he was sensitive and was laughed at, we worked in secret. And -since his death, and out of respect to his memory, I have continued in -the same manner. But I have written down everything, all the laws, -computations, formulas—everything; and I am now willing it to mankind.</p> - -<p>Robold had a theory on kinetics. It was strange at first and a thing -to laugh at; but he reduced it to laws as potent and as inexorable as -the laws of gravitation.</p> - -<p>The luminous Opalescence that has almost destroyed us is but one of -its minor manifestations. It is a message of sinister intelligence; -for back of it all is an Intelligence. Yet it is not all sinister. It -is self-preservation. The time is coming when eons of ages from now -our own man will be forced to employ just such a weapon for his own -preservation. Either that or we shall die of thirst and agony.</p> - -<p>Let me ask you to remember now, that whatever you have suffered, you -have saved a world. I shall now save you and the earth.</p> - -<p>In the vaults you will find everything. All the knowledge and -discoveries of the great Dr. Robold, plus a few minor findings by -myself.</p> - -<p>And now I bid you farewell. You shall soon be free.    <span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Charley -Huyck.</span></p> - -</blockquote> -<p>A strange message. Spoken over the wireless and flashed to every -clime, it roused and revived the hope of mankind. Who was this Charley -Huyck? Uncounted millions of men had never heard his name; there were -but few, very few who had.</p> - -<p>A message out of nowhere and of very dubious and doubtful explanation. -Celestial kinetics! Undoubtedly. But the words explained nothing. -However, man was ready to accept anything, so long as it saved him.</p> - -<p>For a more lucid explanation we must go back to the Arizona -observatory and Professor Ed. Williams. And a strange one it was -truly; a certain proof that consciousness is more potent, far more so -than mere material; also that many laws of our astronomers are very -apt to be overturned in spite of their mathematics.</p> - -<p>Charley Huyck was right. You cannot measure intelligence with a -yard-stick. Mathematics do not lie; but when applied to consciousness -they are very likely to kick backward. That is precisely what had -happened.</p> - -<p>The suddenness of Huyck’s departure had puzzled Professor Williams; -that, and the note which he found upon the table. It was not like -Charley to go off so in the stress of a moment. He had not even taken -the time to get his hat and coat. Surely something was amiss.</p> - -<p>He read the note carefully, and with a deal of wonder.</p> - -<p>“Look these up. Keep by the lens. If the world goes up you will know I -have not reached the mountain.”</p> - -<p>What did he mean? Besides, there was no data for him to work on. He -did not know that an errant breeze had plumped the information behind -the bookcase. Nevertheless he went into the observatory, and for the -balance of the night stuck by the lens.</p> - -<p>Now there are uncounted millions of stars in the sky. Williams had -nothing to go by. A needle in the hay-stack were an easy task compared -with the one that he was allotted. The flaming mystery, whatever it -was that Huyck had seen, was not caught by the professor. Still, he -wondered. “If the world goes up you will know I have not reached the -mountain.” What was the meaning?</p> - -<p>But he was not worried. The professor loved Huyck as a visionary and -smiled not a little at his delightful fancies. Doubtless this was one -of them. It was not until the news came flashing out of Oakland that -he began to take it seriously. Then followed the disappearance of -Mount Heckla. “If the world goes up”—it began to look as if the words -had meaning.</p> - -<p>There was a frantic professor during the next few days. When he was -not with the lens he was flashing out messages to the world for -Charley Huyck. He did not know that Huyck was lying unconscious and -almost dead upon the desert. That the world was coming to catastrophe -he knew full well; but where was the man to save it? And most of all, -what had his friend meant by the words, “look these up”?</p> - -<p>Surely there must be some further information. Through the long, long -hours he stayed with the lens and waited. And he found nothing.</p> - -<p>It was three days. Who will ever forget them? Surely not Professor -Williams. He was sweating blood. The whole world was going to pieces -without the trace of an explanation. All the mathematics, all the -accumulations of the ages had availed for nothing. Charley Huyck held -the secret. It was in the stars, and not an astronomer could find it.</p> - -<p>But with the seventeenth hour came the turn of fortune. The professor -was passing through the office. The door was open, and the same fitful -wind which had played the original prank was now just as fitfully -performing restitution. Williams noticed a piece of paper protruding -from the back of the bookcase and fluttering in the breeze. He picked -it up. The first words that he saw were in the handwriting of Charley -Huyck. He read:</p> - -<p>“In the last extremity—in the last phase when there is no longer any -water on the earth; when even the oxygen of the atmospheric envelope -has been reduced to a minimum—man, or whatever form of intelligence is -then upon the earth, must go back to the laws which governed his -forebears. Necessity must ever be the law of evolution. There will be -no water upon the earth, but there will be an unlimited quantity -elsewhere.</p> - -<p>“By that time, for instance, the great planet, Jupiter, will be in -just a convenient state for exploitation. Gaseous now, it will be, by -that time, in just about the stage when the steam and water are -condensing into ocean. Eons of millions of years away in the days of -dire necessity. By that time the intelligence and consciousness of the -earth will have grown equal to the task.</p> - -<p>“It is a thing to laugh at (perhaps) just at present. But when we -consider the ratio of man’s advance in the last hundred years, what -will it be in a billion? Not all the laws of the universe have been -discovered, by any means. At present we know nothing. Who can tell?</p> - -<p>“Aye, who can tell? Perhaps we ourselves have in store the fate we -would mete out to another. We have a very dangerous neighbor close -beside us. Mars is in dire straits for water. And we know there is -life on Mars and intelligence! The very fact on its face proclaims it. -The oceans have dried up; the only way they have of holding life is by -bringing their water from the polar snow-caps. Their canals pronounce -an advanced state of cooperative intelligence; there is life upon Mars -and in an advanced stage of evolution.</p> - -<p>“But how far advanced? It is a small planet, and consequently eons of -ages in advance of the earth’s evolution. In the nature of things Mars -cooled off quickly, and life was possible there while the earth was -yet a gaseous mass. She has gone to her maturity and into her -retrogression; she is approaching her end. She has had less time to -produce intelligence than intelligence will have—in the end—upon the -earth.</p> - -<p>“How far has this intelligence progressed? That is the question. -Nature is a slow worker. It took eons of ages to put life upon the -earth; it took eons of more ages to make this life conscious. How far -will it go? How far has it gone on Mars?”</p> - -<p>That was as far the the comments went. The professor dropped his eyes -to the rest of the paper. It was a map of the face of Mars, and across -its center was a black cross scratched by the dull point of a soft -pencil.</p> - -<p>He knew the face of Mars. It was the Ascræus Lucus. The oasis at the -juncture of a series of canals running much like the spokes of a -wheel. The great Uranian and Alander Canals coming in at about right -angles.</p> - -<p>In two jumps the professor was in the observatory with the great lens -swung to focus. It was the great moment out of his lifetime, and the -strangest and most eager moment, perhaps, ever lived by any -astronomer. His fingers fairly twitched with tension. There before his -view was the full face of our Martian neighbor!</p> - -<p>But was it? He gasped out a breath of startled exclamation. Was it -Mars that he gazed at; the whole face, the whole thing had been -changed before him.</p> - -<p>Mars has ever been red. Viewed through the telescope it has had the -most beautiful tinge imaginable, red ochre, the weird tinge of the -desert in sunset. The color of enchantment and of hell!</p> - -<p>For it is so. We know that for ages and ages the planet has been -burning up; that life was possible only in the dry sea-bottoms and -under irrigation. The rest, where the continents once were, was -blazing desert. The redness, the beauty, the enchantment that we so -admired was burning hell.</p> - -<p>All this had changed.</p> - -<p>Instead of this was a beautiful shade of iridescent green. The red was -gone forever. The great planet standing in the heavens had grown into -infinite glory. Like the great Dog Star transplanted.</p> - -<p>The professor sought out the Ascræus Lucus. It was hard to find. The -whole face had been transfigured; where had been canals was now the -beautiful sheen of green and verdure. He realized what he was -beholding and what he had never dreamed of seeing; the seas of Mars -filled up.</p> - -<p>With the stolen oceans our grim neighbor had come back to youth. But -how had it been done. It was horror for our world. The great -luminescent ball of Opalescence! Europe frozen and New York a mass of -ice. It was the earth’s destruction. How long could the thing keep up; -and whence did it come? What was it?</p> - -<p>He sought for the Ascræus Lucus. And he beheld a strange sight. At the -very spot where should have been the juncture of the canals he caught -what at first looked like a pin-point flame, a strange twinkling light -with flitting glow of Opalescence. He watched it, and he wondered. It -seemed to the professor to grow; and he noticed that the green about -it was of different color. It was winking, like a great force, and -much as if alive; baneful.</p> - -<p>It was what Charley Huyck had seen. The professor thought of Charley. -He had hurried to the mountain. What could Huyck, a mere man, do -against a thing like this? There was naught to do but sit and watch it -drink of our lifeblood. And then—</p> - -<p>It was the message, the strange assurance that Huyck was flashing over -the world. There was no lack of confidence in the words he was -speaking. “Celestial Kinetics,” so that was the answer! Certainly it -must be so with the truth before him. Williams was a doubter no -longer. And Charley Huyck could save them. The man he had humored. -Eagerly he waited and stuck by the lens. The whole world waited.</p> - -<p>It was perhaps the most terrific moment since creation. To describe it -would be like describing doomsday. We all of us went through it, and -we all of us thought the end had come; that the earth was torn to -atoms and to chaos.</p> - -<p>The State of Colorado was lurid with a red light of terror; for a -thousand miles the flame shot above the earth and into space. If ever -spirit went out in glory that spirit was Charley Huyck! He had come to -the moment and to Archimedes. The whole world rocked to the recoil. -Compared to it the mightiest earthquake was but a tender shiver. The -consciousness of the earth had spoken!</p> - -<p>The professor was knocked upon the floor. He knew not what had -happened. Out of the windows and to the north the flame of Colorado, -like the whole world going up. It was the last moment. But he was a -scientist to the end. He had sprained his ankle and his face was -bleeding; but for all that he struggled, fought his way to the -telescope. And he saw:</p> - -<p>The great planet with its sinister, baleful, wicked light in the -center, and another light vastly larger covering up half of Mars. What -was it? It was moving. The truth set him almost to shouting.</p> - -<p>It was the answer of Charley Huyck and of the world. The light grew -smaller, smaller, and almost to a pin-point on its way to Mars.</p> - -<p>The real climax was in silence. And of all the world only Professor -Williams beheld it. The two lights coalesced and spread out; what it -was on Mars, of course, we do not know.</p> - -<p>But in a few moments all was gone. Only the green of the Martian Sea -winked in the sunlight. The luminous opal was gone from the Sargasso. -The ocean lay in peace.</p> - -<p>It was a terrible three days. Had it not been for the work of Robold -and Huyck life would have been destroyed. The pity of it that all of -their discoveries have gone with them. Not even Charley realized how -terrific the force he was about to loosen.</p> - -<p>He had carefully locked everything in vaults for a safe delivery to -man. He had expected death, but not the cataclysm. The whole of Mount -Robold was shorn away; in its place we have a lake fifty miles in -diameter.</p> - -<p>So much for celestial kinetics.</p> - -<p>And we look to a green and beautiful Mars. We hold no enmity. It was -but the law of self-preservation. Let us hope they have enough water; -and that their seas will hold. We don’t blame them, and we don’t blame -ourselves, either for that matter. 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