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Show I WHEN WORLDS 1 I 1 BBT By EDWIN BALMER J Lrlvil and PHILIP WYL1E I i jj l - Cpyrlpht -by Edwin BolmPr A PliillD Wyll" - ! - . WNU Service ' P vsx jt--j- r-f-r-r yrr rTAA r---r-r I SYNOPSIS ' David Ransdell, noted aviator, has . been commissioned fit Capetown to leliver a consignment of photographic photo-graphic plates to Dr. Cole Hendron. in Now York. Tony -Drake calls at the Ilendrons apartment. Ransdell irrives and Eva Hendron, with ft'hom Tony is deeply In love, introduces in-troduces Tony, to Rnnsdell. New York newspapers publish a statement state-ment made by J-tendron, saying that Professor Bronson has discov-Ired discov-Ired two planets, which must have broken away from another star- or lun, and are approaching: the earth. Vhe result of the inevitable collision col-lision must be the end of this world- The.approachine. bodies are referred to as Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta. mlnations of theso bodies. More than a thousand nltogothor! We Unow now whut they are; we know their dimensions and the speed with which they are traveling. We know, of-course, almost precisely the forces and att mctions which will influence 1 hem the gravitational power of Ihe sun. Tony, you remember re-member how precise the fnreenst was In the eclipse that darkened New England. "It's the same with these ftrnn-son ftrnn-son bodies, Tony. They're ""fnllfnc: 1 toward the sun, and thpir path can Ite plotted like the path of Newton's apple dropping from the bouh. Gravity is the surest and most constant con-stant force in all creation. One of those worlds, which is seeking our sun, is going to wipe us out, Tony-all Tony-all of us, every soul of us that remains re-mains on 1 ho world when U collides. col-lides. BiU the other world the world so much like this will pass us close and pro on, safe and sound, around the sun again "Tony, do you believe In Cod?" "What's that to do with this?" "So much that this lias got me thinking about God again. Tony, God the God of our fathers the God of the Old Testament, Tony; the God who did things and meant something, flu? God of wrath and vengeance, but the God who also could be mere! ful to men. For He's ' sending two worlds to us, Tony, not one not just the one that will destroy us. He's sending the world that may save us, too!' "Save us? What do you mean?" "That's what the League of the Last Days Is working on, Tony the chance of escape that's offered by the world like ours, which will pass so close' and go on. We may transfer to Ir, Tony, If we have the will and the skill and the nerve 1 We could send a rocket to the moon today, If it would do us any good, If anyone could possibly live on the j moon after be got there. Well, Bronson Bron-son Beta will pass us closer than the moon. Bronson Boia Is the size of the earth, and therefore can hava an atmosphere. It is perfectly possible pos-sible that people who arc able ta reach Jt can live there. "It's a world, perhaps very like ours, which has been in immutable cold and darkness for millions oi years, probably, and which now will be coming to life fiirnin. "Think of it, Tony I The tremendous, tremen-dous, magnificent adventure of making mak-ing a try for it! It was a world once like ours, circling around some sun. People lived on it; and animals ani-mals and plants and trees. Evo-Jution Evo-Jution had occurred there, loo, and progress. Civilization had come. Thousands of years of it, maybe. Tens of thousands of years pep-haps pep-haps much more than we have yet known. Perhaps, also, much less. It's the purest speculation to guess in whfit stage that world was when it was torn from its su and sent spinning into space. "But in whatever stage It wag in, you may be sure it is in exactly that stage now; for when it left ita sun, life became extinct. The rivers, the lakes, the seas, the very air, I froze and became solid, encasing 1 and keeping everything just as It was, through space 'for ten million years. But as It approaches the sun, the air and then the seas will thaw. The people cannot possibly come lo life, nor the animals or birds or other things; but the cities cit-ies will stand (here unchanged, the implements, their homes all. will remain 'and be uncovered again. "If this world were not doomed, what an adventure to try for that one, Tony I , And a. possible adventure adven-ture a perfectly possible adventure, adven-ture, with the powers at our disposal dis-posal today I" Tony recollected, after a while, that Bolcom had bid him to learn from Hendron, as definitely aa possible, pos-sible, the date and nature of the next announcement. How would It affect, storks? Would the Stocrtt K-xchange open at all? He remembered, remem-bered, at last, it was a business day ; downtown he had duties contracts to buy and orders to sell storks, lie did not venture to ask to have Hendron awakened to speak to hi m. , ! (TO BF, CONTINUED. 1 IHIII III Will II II MIT ri-mTTTI-l-ntfl three. That is. Father then absolutely abso-lutely refused to say any more or to sec anyone else. He went to sleep." "You didn't." ; "No; I kept thinking thinking " "Of the end of everything, Kve?" "Part of the time, I did; of course I did; but more of the time of you;" "Of me last night?" , "I hoped you'd come first thing today. I thought you would. . . . It's funny what difference the formal for-mal -announcement of It makes. I knew it all last night, Tony. I've known the general truth of It for weeks. But when it was A secret tiling something shared just with my father and with his friends it wasn't the same as now. One knew It but still didn't' admit it, even to one's self. It was theoretical in one's head, like a dream, not reality. We really didn't do much, Father and I, last night. I mean do much in proving up the facts and figures. Father had them all before from other men. Professor Bronson's plates and calculations simply confirmed con-firmed what really was certain; Father Fa-ther checked them over. Then he gave it out. That's what made everything ev-erything so changed." "You know exactly what's going to happen, don't you. Eve? It's going go-ing to be doomsday, isn't It?" "No, Tony more than doomsday." dooms-day." "What can be more than that?" "Dawn after doomsday, Tony. The world is going to be destroyed. Tony, oh, Tony, the world Is going to be most thoroughly destroyed ; yet some of us will not die! Or we need not die If we accejpt the strange challenge that G1 is casting at us from the skies!" "The challenge that God casts at us what challenge? What do you mean?" "I'll try to tell yon, Tony: There are two worlds coming toward us two worlds torn, millions of years ago perhaps, from another star. For millions of years, probably, they've been, wandering, utterly dark and utterly frozen, through space; and now they've found our sun; and they're going to attach themselves to it at our expense. For they are coming into the solar system on a course which will carry them close oh, very close indeed. Tony, to the orbit of the earth. They're going go-ing to join up at the same distance from the sun as we are. Do you understand ?'' In spite of himself, Tony blanched. "They're going to hit the earth, you mean? I thought so." "They're not going to hit the earth, Tony, the first time around. The first time they circle the sun, they're going to pass us close, to be sure; but they're going to pass us both of them. But the second time they pass well, one of thorn is going to pass us a second time,-too, time,-too, but the other one isn't, Tony. 'The smaller one Bronson Beta, the one about the same size as the earth and. so far as we can tell, very much like the earth Is going to pass us safely; but the big one, Bronson Alpha, is going to take out the world !" " "You know that, Kve?" "We know it! There must be a margin of error, we know. There may not be a direct head-on collision, Tony; hut any sort of encounter even a glancing blow would be enough and much more than enough to finish this globe. And an encounter en-counter Is certain. Every single calculation that has been mad1 shows it. "You know what an exact thing astronomy Is today. Tony. If we have three different obscrval Ions of a moving body, wo can plot Its path; ami we've hundreds nf deier- CHAPTER II Continued 5 Kyto, who usually effaced himself, nld not do so this morning. Kyto, -having the untasted coffee, for an excuse, called attention to himself and ventured, "Mister, of course, comprehends the news?" "Yes, Kyto; understand It partly, part-ly, at any rate." "I -may inquire, please, perhaps the significance?" Tony stared at the little Jap. He had always liked him; but suddenly he, was assailed with a surge of fellow feeling for this small brown man, trapped like himself on the rim of the world. Trapped! That was it. Trapped was the word for this strange feel- "Kyto, we're in for something." "What?" "Something rather extensive. Kyto. One thing is true, we're all in for it together." "General destruction?" Kyto asked. Tony shook his head, and his reply surprised himself. "No; :? it were jnst that, Jh?y'd say It the end of everything. People ''after all In a way are prepared for that. Kyto." Tony was reasoning to himself as much as talking to Kyto. "No; this can't be just destruction. It doesn't feel like it, Kytn." "What else can It be?" questioned ques-tioned the .Tap, practically. Tony, having no answer, gulped his coffee; nnd Kyto had to attend to the phone, which was ringing. Five minutes after the telephone rang Tony Drake was at the Hen-drons'. Hen-drons'. The place was policed. Radio people and reporters refused admittance, picked up wat they could from the throng. Tony, at last, made proper contact con-tact with a policeman. The officer escorted him In. The elevator lifted him high to the penthouse pent-house on the roof. No one was about but the servants. Miss Eve. they said, was in the breakfast room ; Doctor Hendron still was asleep. "Hello, Tony! Come in!" Eve rose from the pretty little green table in the gay chintz curtained nook which they called the breakfast break-fast room. Her eyes were bright, her face flushed the slightest bit with her excitement. Her hands grasped his tightly. Longing for her leaped in Tony. D n everything every-thing else ! He pulled her within his arras and kissed her; and her lips, as they had last night, clung to his. Their bands held each other a moment more ; then Tony stepped back. She bad dressed but for her frock Itself ; she was in negligee, with her slim lovely arms In loose-lace-decked silk, her white neck and bosom half "exposed. He bent and kissed her neck. "You've breakfasted, Tony?" "Yes no. Can I sit with you here? I scarcely dreamed you'd be up, Eve. after your night." "You've seen the pa pers? 'We -ere through with lb cm before |