| Show r ii 0 razed SYNOPSIS percy darrow a young scientist in search of a job caters the office of boi mccarthy ot new york mccarthy haa just been threatened by an anonymous message o him to ee 0 o europe ha does not take the mes ISAS seriously darrow goes up the to try tor a position with dr knox suddenly the e apparatus in the atlas roes out or bust fleas experts are unable to locate the trouble all at once without apparent reason electric connectors connect ons are restored che next evening mccarthy Is warned unless he leaves at once for europe A lam will be sent hi pi at six prompt ty at that hour the ire electric apparatus or new york la out off percy dar thinks he hail clue he engages h help or jack garlord warlord a college ath fete they visit mccarthy and offer to un down the cause of his mysterious mccarthy has just received another warning by wireless at six a fals on the atlas build ane blotting put H sound darrow Is arrested as he lenes the continued lie may possess the ower to launch the fourth and dan berous arow a row but may withhold it un lesa he believes himself suspected or close pressed at present he directs solely mccarthy bercy darrow bad been thinking and realized it with a balle ahta la one ot your jobs fellow detective tec tive said he you ve got to be ft mark or me to think at 1 I wish aoud think a little more clearly observed jack it sounds interesting but jumbled I 1 feel the ibay I 1 did when I 1 began to read greek mccarthys McCar thys incidental observed yarrow in his detached joae eb oh I 1 thought we might as well wor fj mccarthy by asking him for that ob on the side its amusing what do you want me to do ask d jack this said darrow with an ansual rapidity of utterance see that biet quick man in gray clothes lies A policeman in a moment be II 11 arrest acae arrest you wl demanded jack aln tones of great astonishment 1 I reason that mccarthy will come to that conclusion he Is beginning to I 1 have something to do with what he calls bis annoyances I 1 saw it la his eyes this last curious danl est atlon came along too pat you re it cut off the dressing down abe was going to give me darrow in appreciation dlan t the humor of that strike you me oh I 1 was scared admitted jack T want you to go home and tell helen just what happened in the at as building do not tell her that I 1 the phenomena ere due to any human agency say simply that it it Is repeated and she happens to be within the zone ot its influence to adeep calm and wait it will pass and ft Is not to be feared tell her I 1 said 0 Lord cried jack you don t think ts going to happen again within the next twenty our hours ald darrow we to warn the people and let our hidden antagonist linked his arm in that of the officer know we are aware of bis existence darrow anything else noyes huy a gun it I 1 bring you into any trouble see you you understand 1 I do rely on your being game to the limit said jack here cornea your friend won t this arrest ball things up shall I 1 rustle balla no said darrow I 1 v ant to think AH I 1 need Is all the papers I 1 II 11 be out acy ten tomorrow morning sure why are you sure of that because by that hour mccarthy hlll have disappeared said percy darrow the man in the gray suit having finished his scrutiny lounged forward you are amri darrow he stated sure I 1 am my amiable but obvious louah drawled tha man lead on lie nodded a farewell to jack and linked his arm in that of the officer after a few moments he burst into an irrepressible chuckle fhe fat thick necked thick witted old fool said he CHAPTER VIII percy dabrowa Da irowa theory percy darrow in the police station where he had been assigned an unused office instead of a cell amused him self reading the newspapers of which he caused to be brought in a full supply theories had begun to claim their share of the space which up to now the fact stories bad completely monopolized darrow bis feet up a cigarette depend lag from one corner of bis mouth read them through to the end then he indulged the white walls of bis little apartment with one of his glow smiles the simplest of the theories had to do with comets the most elaborate traced out an an between the blind spot in vl slon and a point of rest in manifestations this point of resta had just now happened to drift to a crowded center and so became danl test ingenious but fantastic youth was percy darrow s tribute to the author professor eldradge of the university the human interest stories of both the evening before and those in the extras describing the latest freak in the atlas building darrow passed over with barely a glance but certain figures he copied carefully into his notebook note book when be had found all of these and had transcribed them they appeared about as follows atlas wednesday 5 25 S 00 about 9 hr 35 aln General Thursday 6 00 7 56 exact I 1 hr 56 aln atlass 10 10 10 48 exact SS aln on the basis of these latter figures he made some calculations which when finished he looked on with doub tul satisfaction need more statistics said he to himself before I 1 can pose as a prophet just now im merely a guesser by now it was afternoon an official came to announce visitors and a moment later helen and her brother came in As gercys case was merely one of detention or tor some other obscurer reason known only to those who took their orders from mccarthy the three were left alone to their own devices after the first greetings and ercla mahlons helen demanded to know particulars and prospects all elgh tell you agreed dar row I 1 m thought out and I 1 want to bear it myself jack looked about him uneasily Is it wise ta talk here he asked I 1 don t doubt they have arrangements for overhearing anything that Is said I 1 don t think they wre what we say observed darrow they are merely detaining me on some excuse or other that I 1 haven t even taken the trouble to inquire about that must astonish them some said jack and if they do overhear I 1 don t much care isow said he turning to helen we have here three strange happenings comprising two phenomena the cutting ott of the electricity first in the atlas building second in the acty at large and the cutting oft of sound in the atlak although we are of course not justified in general izing from one instance what would you think by analogy would be the next thing to expect that sound would be cut oc in the city said helen but jack has al read delivered me your warning or advice she added precisely now as to theories of the cause naturally this must have been brought about either by nature or by roan it by nature it as exceedingly localized not to say dl erected it b man he must have in some way acquired unprecedented powers over the phenomena ot electricity and these he can evl dently at will either focus as on the atlas building or diffuse as over the city for the moment we will adopt the latter hypothesis that it Is a man in possession of extraordinary powers said helen leaning forward in her interest go on we have completed only the phenomena of electricity continued dar row the phenomena of sound remain to be completed we observe as to that ahe a he folded back his forefinger the atlas manifestation last ed about nine and a halt hours and b ho folded bis middle finger the city manifestation was a little less than two hours yes cried jack but then this second one minute interrupted darrow let me finish now let us place our selves in the position of a man possessed ot a new toy or a new power which be has out what would he do try it out said jack certainly try it out to the limit to see just what it could do in differ ent circumstances now take the lapses of time I 1 have mentioned and assume tor the sake ot argument that these powers are limited just bow do you mean limited asked helen I 1 mean exhaustible like a water ing pot ou can water just so much and then you have to go back and fill up again in that case we can suppose this mans stream will last nine hours and a half when he dribbles it down on one spot like the atlas build ing but it will empty itself in about two hours when be turns her upside down over a whole city there remains only the length of time necessary to refill the water pot to round out our hypothesis that Is something more than nine hours and sometimes less than fifteen how do you get those figures demanded jack the unknown Is anxious after the atlas Buc ceas to try out his discovery on the larger scale he will naturally do so at the first opportunity after his water pot Is refilled but he wishes to do BO at the first effective tunit what Is the most effective the rush hours ahat are the rush hours from eight to ten and at six since he did not pull off his show in the morning we are fairly justified in concluding tentatively that the water pot was not full by then and as the atlas phenomena subsided at three of the morning before the inference Is obvious but isn t the most effective time at night anyway on account of the lights 9 asked jack good boy approved darrow he might have waited for that but the city wide phenomena ceased at eight coolly broke the locks off the door the night before and the atlas sound phenomena did not occur until ten the next morning fourteen hours now the most effective time to scare mccarthy was any time after nine mccarthy arrives AS the clock strikes jack shook his bead oh its not proof its idle by po thesis admitted darrow we shall have to test it but lets go on with it anyway and see how it works out mccarthy got to do with ita demanded helen that s so you aren t in touch there darrow sketched briefly the situation as it affected the boss hel en s eyes were shining with interest now continued darrow having tried out his new power to the limit our friend would begin to use it only as he needed it there la now no reason to empty the water pot entire ly all he wanted to do thia morning was to scare mccarthy and impress the public he did that in thirty eight minutes on he basis of tour teen hours to fill the water pot it Is evident that he would be rehabilitated ready for business in an hour there fore all he is waiting tor now Is the most effective moment to try out his city wide experiment of silence I 1 imagine that will be about six sounds reasonable admitted jack reasonable its certain cried helen darrow smiled no only a wild hypothesis they re scared already and they re somewhat prepared by the perform ance this morning besides I 1 don t see yet that human agency la sua pecked don t you think you d better warn people what Is going to happen and tell them there s nothing to be fright ened ofa pleaded helen no said darnov I 1 do not it would contuse the phenomena and they must be unconfused in order that I 1 can either prove or disprove my hypothesis if this lasts about two hours the fact will go tar to prove me right it the next manifestation comes at about ten the next morning we shall have established a period lacity at least but it the man realizes that his existence Is suspected be will purposely vary in order to mix me up the next manifestation cried helen then ou think they will continue why not smiled darrow until he has scared mccarthy out which will it be next time do ou thinks whatever happens don t be f rights ened said darrow enigmatically it seems to me there Is something absurd about all this said helen A man with such a discovery such powers using them in euch a manner for such petty purpose he is of course crazy darrow said quietly the methodical logical lunatic the most dangerous sort what Is it be has discovered ask ed jack I 1 do not know yet out you suspect darrow nodded but would not ex plain aa what will be the outcome I 1 am going to cut loose science and guess wildly eald darrow after a moment tomorrow morning somewhere about ten mccarthy will disappear you said that before cried jack well I 1 say it again drawled harrow CHAPTER IX the great silence percy darrow sat quite calmly though a little hungrily through the first of the two hours of the great silence As it fell be looked at his watch then went on reading strange ly terrified faces flirted flitted by the open door of bis little room about seven 0 clock darrow struck by a sudden idea arose walked down the corridor outside and quite deliberately set to work to force the light door As has been intimated either by direct order of mccarthy or because of same vagueness of the orders the young man had been confined not in the jail proper but in one of the living apartments of the wing few realize how important a role sound plays in what might be called the defensives defens ives of our every day life sight Is important to be sure but it Is more often corroborative than not it Is more often used to identify the source of the alarm that has been corn through other channels when we are told of the hero or the villain that he stood with every sense alert our mental picture in spite of the phrasing is that of a man listening intently for the first intimations of what may threaten so it is in prison the warders can of necessity remain within actual view of but a few of the prisoners a small proportion of the time but through those massive and silent cor eldors sound stands watch dog tor them the minute scratch of a file the vibrations attendant on the most cautious attempts against the stone structure the most muffled footfall reports to the jailer that mischief Is afoot now the watch dog was asleep percy darrow reflected that were it not for the terror of these unexplainable hours the prisoners within or their friends without could assail their con fines boldly and formidably even with dynamite and no one would be the wl serif only none happened to be within actual visual range of the operations he himself quite coolly used the iron side piece of his bed as a battering ram to break the locks of the door then he walked down the long carrl dor and out through the police station bowing politely to the bewildered of bleers the latter did not attempt to stop him the people in the streets were for the most part either standing stock still or moving slowly forward in a groping sort of fashion darrow for the second time noticed how anal odous to the deprivation of sight was the total deprivation of bearing and feeling vibration traffic was at a standstill people s faces were bewildered tor the most part though here and there one show ed contorted with the hysteria of fright or exalted with some other probably religious emotion the same impression of ghostliness came to darrow here as in the atlas build ing visual causes were not producing their wonted aural effect athla complete severance of one cause and effect was sufficient to als credit all natural laws no other cause and effect was certain every where people were touching things to see it they were solid or wet or soft or hard as the case might be even darrow felt absurdly enough that it would not be greatly serious to jump off the top of any building into the street darrow swung confidently enough down the street he was the only per son who moved forward at a natural and easy gait the effect was star darrow seemed to be the only real human being of the lot all the rest were phantasmagoric but as he proceeded down town the spell was beginning to break people were communicating with one another by means of pencil and paper darrow was amused on crossing the park to see against the lighted windows on newspaper row the silhouetted forms of activity evidently the newspaper men were already at work on this fresh story near the corner ot the park darrow saw standing a policeman of his varied acquaintance the scientist walked up to this man who was standing in the typical vacant uncertainty smiled agreeably clapped him on the back and shook his band darrow slipped his notebook from hla pocket and scribbled a few lines which he showed to the officer the latter read inwardly digested tor a moment and smiled keep your hair one ran darrows screed this will pass in a few aln utes and |
