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Show I WHEN WO It L DS COLLIDE 'SW&Sj 1 CopyriBht by Eriwln Balmer & Philip Wyile J WNU Service S SYNOPSIS David rtansdftll, commissioned at Capetown to d Oliver a ronsipnment of photographic plates to Dr. Cole Hcndson. reaches New York, Tony Drake calls at tho Hondrona' apartment. apart-ment. Kve Ilondron, with whom Tony fs in love, introduces Tony to Ransdcil. A statement by Hen-dron Hen-dron says that Professor Bronson has d iscovered two pin nets approaching ap-proaching the earth, ' and the inevitable in-evitable collision must be the end of this world. The approaching bodies a,ro referred to. as Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta. Hendron has in contemplation a "rocket" in which to transfer a party of human beings, lower animals, and other forms of life, to "Bronson Beta, but he has not been able to find a metal which will withstand the heat and pressure of atomic energy to bo Used In propelling the Space- Ship. Tides and quakes chance the entire surface of the., earth.- Bansdell and Kliot James, an Kngllsh poet, make an aerial roconnolssance. They report re-port almost universal destruction. Kansdell, Peter Vanderbilt and .Tames leave for a flight over the devastated country. They aro attacked, at-tacked, and each member of the party wounded, but they return alive, and Kansdell has found the metal Hendronl needs for the Space Ship. The settlement is attacked by a hunger-crazed horde., Hendron calls the survivors of his party into the ship and sends it aloft. it, lived to see what was happening. happen-ing. The great metal rocket rose from the earth, the awful blast from its power tubes lifting it.. Tito frightful fright-ful heat seared and incinerated, killing at- its touch. A hundred of the horde were dead before the ship was above the buildings. Hendron lifted it five hundred feet farther, and trie blast spread in a funnel below it. A thousand died in that instant. Hendron censed to elevate the .ship. Instead, tie lowered it a little, and the power pow-er of tho atomic hiast which was Ueeping two thousand tons of metal and of human flesh suspended over the earth, played upon the ground and upon the flesh on the ground as no force ever released by map before. Half an hour later, Hendron brought the ship down. In tlie main oilice of the laboratories labora-tories a few men, and women stared at each other; Hendron, pale and shaken, Tony in shoes and trousers, white "bandages over his wounds; Kve staring from him to the short, broad-shouldered, silent form of Kansdell, whose hands, blackened, tiirlv. hnnrr llmnlv at his sides, whose gorilla-hke strength seemed . in trncks the bodies there. Not far from the cantonment, on what had been a lumber road, an enormoua fissure yawned in the earth. All that day they tended their own wounded. Many of them perished. per-ished. In those nightmare days no one spoke unless it was necessary. Lifelong Life-long friendships and strong new friendships had been obliterated. Loves that In two months had flowered flow-ered into vehement reality were ended. For two weeks abysmal sadness and funeral silence hold them. Only the necessary ardors of their toil prevented many of Ihein from going mud. But at the end of two weeks Tony, returning from an errand to the fissure where the last bodies had been entombed by a blast of dynamite, stood on tho hill above tho encampment and saw that once again the grass grew green, once again the buildings were clean and trim. When he stood there his attention atten-tion was attracted by a strange sound the sound of an airplane motor, and the plane itself became visible. It landed presently on their field, and Tony was one of several men who approached it. The cabin door opened and out stepped a man. There was something familiar about him to Tony, but he could not decide what it was. The man had a high, cracUling voice. His hair was snow-white. His features were drawn, and Ids skin was yellow. His pilot remained at the controls of the plane, and the old man hobbled hob-bled toward Tony, saying as he ap proached, "Please take me to Mr, Hendron.' Tony stepped forward. "I'm Mi',,-. Hendron's assistant. We don't allow al-low visitors here. Perhaps you will tell me your errand." Til see Hendron," snapped the other. Tony realized that the man constituted con-stituted no menace, "Perhaps," ha said ' coldly, "if you will, tell me vour reason for wanting to see lien-dron, lien-dron, I -can arrange for the interview." inter-view." The (jld man almost shrieked, you can arrange an interview! 1 tell you, young fellow, I said 1 would see Hendron, and that's all there is to It." He came abruptly closer, snatched Tony's lapel, cocked his head, and peered into his face. "You're Drake, aren'l you, young Tony Drake?" Suddenly Tony recognized the man. He was staggered. Before him stood Nathaniel Borgan, fourth richest man in America, friend ol all tycoons of the land, friend indeed in-deed of Uendron himself. 'Aren't you Drake?" the era cycling cyc-ling voice repeated. Tony nodded 'mechanically, "res," he said; "come with rae." Hendron did not recognize Borgan Bor-gan until Tony had pronounced his name. Then upon his face there appeared briefly a look of consternation, con-sternation, and Borgan in his shrill, grating voice began to talk excitedly. excited-ly. "Of course 1 knew what you were working at here, Hendron, knew all tfout it. Meant to offer you financial assistance, but got tangled up taking care of my affairs af-fairs in the last few weeks. I haven't been able to come here before, be-fore, for a variety of reasons. But now I'm here. You'll take me with you when you go, of course." He banged his fist on the table in a bizarre burlesque of his former gestures. ges-tures. "You'll take me all right, all right, and I'll tell you why you'll take me for my money. When all else fails, I'll have my money. I ask only that you spare my life, (that you'll take me from this awful place, and in turn go out to my plane, go out to the plane that is wrtltlng there for you. Look inside. Suddenly his voice sank to a whisper, and his head was shot forward. "It's full of bills, full of bills, thousand-dollar hills, ton-thousand-dollar bills stacked with them, bales of them, bundles of tbem millions, Hendron, millions! mil-lions! That's the price I'm offering offer-ing you for my life." CHAPTER IX Continued y 27 "Jack?" gasped Tony; and Taylor's Tay-lor's voice answered him. They were staggering and bleeding, both of them; but they had survived the fight together. Tony found the flashlight which, all through the fight, he had had in his pocket, and he bent to the floor and held it close to the faces. He caught breath, bitterly. Bronson Bron-son was there. Bronson the discoverer dis-coverer of the two stranger planets whose passing had loosed this savagery; sav-agery; Dr. Sven Bronson, the first scientist" of the southern hemisphere, hemi-sphere, lay there in his blood, a bayonet bay-onet through his throat. Beside him Dodson was dying, his right arm hacked almost off. A few of those less hurt were rising. "To the ship! Into the ship!" Tony cried to them. "Everybody Into the. ship!" There was no alternative. al-ternative. Creeping on hands and knees, from wounds or from caution, and dragging the wounded with them, the men started to retreat to the ypace Ship. Women were helping them. Yells and whistles warned that another rush was gathering, find that this would be from all sides. Tony caught up in his arms a young man who was barely breathing. breath-ing. He had a bullet through him; but he lived.- Tony staggered with him into the great metal 'rocket. The second rush was coming. No doubt of "It, and it would be utterly ut-terly overwhelming. There would be no survivors but the women. None. For the horde would take no prisoners. They were killing the wounded already their own badly wounded and the camp's wounded, that fhey had captured. Kliot James, a bullet through his thigh, but saved by the dark, crawled in with this Information. Tony carried him Into the ship. They were all in the ship all the survivors. The horde did not suspect sus-pect it. Then they suddenly seemed to realize that the ship was the last refuge. They surrounded It, firing at it. Their bullets glanced from its metal. Somebody who had grenades gren-ades bombed it. A frightful flame shattered them. Probably they Imagined, nt first, that the grenades had exploded some sort of powder magazine within with-in the h u ge met a.1 tube. Few o 1' Uiofie near to the shlD. and outside "You'll Take Me With You When You Go, of Course." He Banged i His Fist on the Table in a Bi-j Bi-j zarre Burlesque of His Former . Gestures. ! to have deserted him ; Smith, the 1 surgeon, stupefied in the face of ,this hopeless summons of his calling. call-ing. At last Hendron sucked a breath into- his lungs. "My friends, what must be done is obvious. We must first bury the dead. There are no survivors of the enemy. If others are gathering-, I believe wo need fear no further attack. Doctor Smith, you will kindly take charge of all hospital and medical arrangements arrange-ments for our people. I will request re-quest that those who are able to do so appear immediately on the airplane air-plane field. 1 shall dispatch the majority of them to your assistance, and with those who remain I shall take such steps as are necessary. Let's go." Only three hundred .and eighty persons were counted by Tony as they struggled shuddering to the landing field. Almost half of them were women, for the women, .except .ex-cept in the case iT individuals who joined the fighting voluntarily, had been secluded. Tony, with ten other men, a pitiful piti-ful number for the appalling task that confronted them, went down to the field and betran to tat her v. a |