Show L iraNi COL lp a ft L J lly Iby D V BaJ Iff J 7 d fA f 1 fJ D vi t w J CHAPTER Continued IV-Continued 7 I thInk the people looked first to the President any ay and the President President dent had the good sense to kick poll poll- tIcs In the face and take full author author- It upon hImself to do anythIng and everything which he thought would keep the country In operation There was some soma trouble In the army and navy still more In the National Guard especIally wIth soldIers who were fa- fa fathers theta and wanted to remain wIth theIr famIlIes I suppose there are nearly half bait a million men doIng police poUce duty rIght no now Hendron looked keenly at Tony all according to the plan that the League worked out before the news broke A man named Carey Is largely responsible for tor It Hes He's an economist I believe hes he's a guest at atthe atthe the WhIte House right now and has been for ten days ulve Ive seen hIs name Tony saId and continued As I was sayIng It hasn't made as much difference as you would Imagine I saw one nasty rIot In Bal Bal- Baltimore between soldIers on one side and cops on the other but In half haIt an hour It was vas all 0 over cr I think that the work of keepIng the tho public Informed has been man marvelous elous The radIo goes twenty four hours a day and the ne- ne news nes newspapers s papers appear as often as they have ha anything fresh to print People are kept encouraged and reassured and directed or Of course part of the gen general genera eral era calmness Is due simply to mess Inertia or every person that w Ill get or do somethIng foolish there are about ten who ho will not only taU fail to get hysterical but who will not even recognIze that theIr lIves are presently going to be changed entirely The whole city of Philadelphia wIth the exception ot of the Is almost unaltered Anyway that's the ImpressIon you get of It it And the unemployed have been en masse There Is s a project to turn the entire basIn of the Mississippi sippi north and west of Kansas City into an abode for the coast populatIons populations and the unemployed are buildIng there I understand quarters for ten people Most of them are tem tem- temporary They are also planting vast areas of lands In crops I Imagine that they are goIng to compel the migra- migra migration tion when the InterIor ot of the country Is prepared as well eU as possible to re- re receive It it and when the danger of tidal Waves raves draws near As a matter ot of tact fact every IndustrIal center Is work work- lag at top speed and ChIcago Is head head- headquarters headquarters quarters for their produce I dont don't just remember the figures but an ap ap- appallIng pallIng quantity of canned goods cloth cloth- clothIng Ing medical supplies and thIngs like that are being prepared and dIstrIbuted to base bases in the MIssIssIppI valley Granted that the valley remains In In- In I really believe that a ma majority of our population will be sue sue- moved there and Ins installed taIled for foran foran an Indefinite time Its wonderful Isn't It 1 Eve e said said Tony nodded The machinery whIch organized millions of men dui ing the War was still more or less available for this much bIgger undertakIng from N rw k t 1 x s I Brighter and Brighter and Higher and Higher Each Night the Strange Stars Stood In the South South- ern em n Skies Indeed One Ceased to Resemble a Star at All the standpoint of plans and human cogs The hardest thing Is to convInce the people that It must be done but the leaders have d the fact and are going ahead A sort of pros verIty has turned returned r Of course all prices and wages are rigIdly freed now no but there Is more than h work to go around and keepIng busy y Is the tiie secret of holding the masses In emotional balance I cant can't gi glue gie e you ou a really reany good pIc pIcture ture of It aU all I rC really lly know very little of It It all came In things dashes read In newspapers things s heard oser oer oserthe the radio things told me but this country at least Iris grasped the basic idea that there Is going to be trouble nail awl gre it trouble In a short time Quite so Hendron saId Now Jo about hont the ret rest of the world The rest of the world l Tony reo re- Hendron's InquIry I 1 dont don't know much about the rest ot of the world What I do know rn Ill tell teU you but the Information Is garbled contra contra- contradIctory contradictory and unreliable one thing many of the European nations are still foolishly tryIng to keep theIr plans secret In order to protect their bor bor- borders ders and so on In fact I wouldn't be beat beat at all surprIsed If they fell feU to fighting There seems to be small thought of at operatIon co and they sUck stick fiercely to natIonal lines Unes labor troubles festered the minute she tried to Institute com com- compulsory compulsory work for those her utilities I believe beHave London was as wIth with- without out power or light for five or six days There was a vast amount of sabotage The police poUce fought battles through Plc- Plc and Trafalgar square wIth armed mobs Australia and Canada on the other hand acted very much as the UnIted States has acted They got down to brass tacks and the doIn doing what they can for and with theIr people So Is South Africa TIle The French are very gay about It and very mad The whole country Is filled with sputtering ineffective e peo pIe They're playing politics for aU all Its It's worth and new cabInets come and go sometimes at the rate of three a day without ever getting anything pUshed plashed at aU all But nt at least they have kept functionIng as a nation In Ger Ger- Ger Germany many a few communists were killed and so were a few Jews Mussolini 1 Is struggling to keep hIs control so far wIth success As for Russia little mUe Is known Of course It Is Isa isa a terrIble blow to the SovIet I be- be believe lieve the government Is carrying on rather bitterly but as best It can ChIna Is still just China So you can cantell tell teU very little mUe about It In South Amer- Amer AmerIca America Ica the news hag haq served merely to augment the regular crop of revolutions Tony put do down n his fork aU all allI I know He reached for a cIgarette and lighted It It What to expect tomor- tomor tomorrow row v or a week from tomorrow no one can say Since Its It's ImpossIble to tell just how hIgh tides will mIl be how far Inland they will rush and what areas will be de devastated and since not even the best guess will be any IndIcation whatsoever of where the land may rise where It may Nil ill and what por portions bans of It witness eruptions and quakes It t may be that even the gigan gigantic gigantic tic steps being taken by some govern govern- governments ments will m be futile After dInner LeIghton ushered Rans- Rans Ransdell Ransdell dell Into the apartment Tony was as furIous He had hoped to have ha Eve lJ to hImself How he had hoped to have her and WIth what further satisfaction he dId not define but at least he knew that he be wanted Ransdell away He has bas flown five times to Wash WashIngton Washington Ington for Father Eve explaIned And hes he's wonderful In the labors labors- tory He has a genIus for mechanIcs It The South AfrIcan listened to this account of himself wIth embarrass embarrassment meat ment and Tony realized that under any other cIrcumstances he be would have liked hIm In fact originally Tony had liked DavId Ransdell Immensely Immensely- untIl he had realized that he also was to go wIth hIm and with on Eve the Space Ship CHAPTER V and brighter and higher and higher each nIght the strange stars stood In the southern skies In died one ceased to resemble a star at all and appeared Instead as a small full moon which grew balefully each each night and now the other also sho- sho showed shoed ed a dIsc even to the naked eye night also they altered post tion slightly relatively ely to each other I the gra control of the Bronson larger Alpha swung Alpha s- s sung ung the smaller Bronson Beta about It In an orbIt ULe that of the moon about the earth TheIr plaIn approach paralyzed en enterprise on the earth Throughout the ch world two professions above all others adhered most universally to their heir callIng day and night In the face Cace of famine blood fire disaster and every conceIvable form of human an gubb doctors and surgeons clung steadfast to their high galling callIng and day and night amid the change of conditions and In the glut of fabulous alarms and reports the themen men who gathered news and printed it it labored to fulfill their purposes Tony saw more of the world s acU acUt t I- I Ides tIes des than most ot of Its cItizens at this time He had scarcely returned from flom his first tour of the eastern cItIes when he was sent out again this time to the MIddle and I ar West Vest That Journey was arduous because of the difficulties of travel The railroads were moving the Pacific and the At- At At civilizations Inland and p s p ts- ts traIns ran on uneasy schedules He saw the vast accumulation of freight In the mid western depots lie De Desaw saw the horizon filling settlements be- be beIn being ing In prepared lIe saw the breath tak- tak taking Ing reaches or of p which had been put under atlOn to feed the new horde Ill the hIgh fiat country north and west ot of Kansas Along the Pacific coast he observed the preparatIons being made for tor the withdrawal al from the western ocean Seattle Tacoma Portland San ran Iran cIsco Los Angeles Sin DIego were ng up their roots drone droe dro e eastward In great lImousines with theIr most prIceless treasures heaped around the them Tonys Tony's work worL was varied He De con continued to send back by ones and twos those scientists whose counsel Hern- Hern Herndon Herndon don desired and the flower of the young men and women who mIght be useful In the event ot of a great cata cata- Hendron's own Ideas were sun still un he felt Ith IncreasIng In- In Intensity the need tor for gathering together the best braIns the healthIest bodies and the hearts that could be found He had a varIety of plans He had founded two stations In the United States and was In the process of of equIp equIppIng equipping pIng them for aU all emergencies Under the best conditions the personality ot of his group might dIvIde Into two parts and move to those stations there to remain until the first crIsIs passed so that afterward after they could emerge as leaders In the final effort agaInst doom Under the pressure of the Impend lag destruction his scientists had pushed their e experiments 1 In obtaInIng power from atomic dIsintegration to a poInt where the power ot of the atom could be utilized within limits as a propulsive e force Hendron had bad thereupon succeeded In bombardIng the surface of the moon with ith a projectIle that was In Its es essentials a small rocket He had set set- settled the problems of hull composItion Insulation and aeration whIch would arIse In such a vessel essel If made made In a sIze to be occupIed by men menThe menThe The chief problem that remaIned un un- un unsolved solved was as n a metal sufficiently reo re- be Ive He could not say any more When Tony went do down n the street was still filled with Ith people AU All the people were talking hey walked but It did not stem to mutter matter to them what hilt direction thc they took or what chance company they shared The Tho strange small moon growIng larger larer each night shone palely In the sky Tony hailed II a cab His eyes settled on his shoes when hen he sat sut down Into Intoe e every cr thought darted the face of Eve as be had bad last seen a It-a face growing hourly more haggard He remembered the of her eyes When Tony arrived ed at hIs apartment he tailed a number In GreenwIch Connecticut waited an abnormally long time then asked a maId for Mrs Drake Ills His robe 13 was warm and calm Well Mother How are you Ills His mothers mother's reply was controlled but nerves stabbed through every word she said Tony darling I Ive I've trIed and trIed to reach you Oh I Im I'm just justan justan an Inch short of fainting I 1 thought something had happened to you Sorry Mother Ive I've been busy I know Come right out and ten tell me all about It s sl i l ir wi tit J The Black Buildings Which Man Had Deserted to the awful force Hendron em employed employed IJ Even IJen en the e experimental rockets often failed In theIr flight because the heat generated by the atomIc combus combustIon combustion tIon wIthIn them melted and blew away the walls Intended to retaIn It So at the Hendron laboratorIes the worlds orid s metallurgists concentrated theIr forces upon findIng an alloy cap cap- capable able ot of withstanding the temperatures and pressures ed In employIng atomic energy as a drIvIng force Tony visIted both of Hendron's sta stations One was as In Michigan and one In New Mexico He brought back re reports reports ports on the progress beIng made there thereIn thereIn In the construction of laboratorIes ma machine chine shops and dormItorIes lio Ho found Hendron sleepless and Icily calm In the midst of his multitudinous enterprises But Ere E showed the straIn more than her father and during the first evenIng which they spent together she expressed her fear lathers rathers greatest hope bope was that hIs shIp would be successful There Is more than has been given out about the Bronson bodies We admIt that they will come very el y close Terribly close We do not admit yet precisely ely how bow close Thc They were standing together on the balcony overlookIng the bright lighted and still sUII noisy city Their arms were locked together In defiance of theIr oath to the league ne Hell II succeed Tony said He has succeeded e that e every ery rocket he builds Is lImited In n the distance It can and the power It Itcan itcan can use b the fad fact that its propulsive e tubes melt Isn't a metal nor noran noran an alloy In the world orl that will with withstand Ith stand that heat It Ton Tony did not answer er After a long silence she spoke agaIn Its an awful thIng Tony Look down there Look Lookdown do down n on the city Think of the pee peo pie pl Look at the lights and then Imagine water mountaIns of It Water that would reach to here I Tony held her arm more tightly Dont Don't torture yourself r Es re e I can t help It Oh Ob Tony just thInk of It I 1 11 eU ell that's the way thIngs have ha to FROM THE OPENING CHAPTERS David Ransdell arrives at New York tram from South Africa liver a case ot of plates to Dr Colo Hendron Tony commissioned Drake to do- do do apartment Ransdell arrives and loo co Hendron with whom calls nt at the Tony Is deeply In love lovo Introduces Tony to Ransdell by Hendron saying that Dronson publish n a statement vo astronomer has t two which havo been brought under tho attraction attraction or of discovered OUr bun The result ot of the Inevitable collision with the irth e-irth must be the tho end or of our world The bodies are referred to DS as Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta will Dronson Bronson Beta Deta pass but the tho other will hit the earth devise of at and demolish it To means transferring to Bronson Beta Deta Is what Is ot of the members ot of the League ot of the Last occupYing the minds minch Days Space Ship with the Idea ot of landing on Bronson plans to build a the earth Tony rounds up suitable Beta Deta with refugees fromn men and women to build the ship I cant can't There was as a pause You cant can't put It In words 1 uNo Ne There was another long pause Mrs Mra Drakes Drake's s olce oice was 10 lower er more trem and ulous-and yet It was as not the voice volee ot of ota ofa a hysterIcal or an unreasonIng worn an Tell me Tony how bad Is It t going to be How could he tell her that for her there was annihilation but for hIm hImself himself self some chance of escape She would wIsh it for hIm wh whatever hap hap- happened happened to herself but he could not accept It it A berth In the Space ShIp leaving |