Show 10 of 0 CO E ly BAN I 1 and NO 4 y he P all dy vue VU e 01 service SYNOPSIS david ransdell nans dell noted aviator haq hai been commissioned at capetown by lord rhondle and professor bronon dronson bronson son the astronomer to deliver a case of 0 photographic plates to dr cole hendren in now new york tony drake draka calls at the apartment lansdell nans dell arrives and evs eve flen hendron dron with whom tony Is deeply in love introduces tony to rans d dall e IL new york newspapers publish a statement made by hendron clendron Ilen dron saying that professor bronson has discovered two planets which must have traveled through interstellar space until they came to a region of the heavens which brought them under the attraction 0 of f the sun they are now ampro approaching a ching the earth and result of the inevitable collision must be the end of this world the approaching bodies are referred to as bronson alpha and bronson beta CHAPTER II 11 continued I 1 4 you know what an exact ei act thing astronomy Is today tony if we have three different observations of a moving body we can plot its path and weve hundreds of determinations mi of these bodies more than a thousand altogether I 1 we know now what they are we know their dimensions and the speed with which they are traveling Dg we know of course almost precisely the forces and attractions which will influence them the gravitational power of the sun tony y you ou remember how precise the forecast was in the eclipse that darkened new england the astronomers not only foretold to a second when it would begin and end but they described the blocks and even the sides of the streets in towns that would be in shadow and their error was less than twenty feet its the same with th these ese bronson bodies tony falling toward the sun and their path can be plotted like the path or of newtons New tons apple dropping from the bough gravity Is the surest and most constant force la in all creation one of those worlds which Is seeking our sun is going to wipe us out tony all of us every soul of us that remains on the world when I 1 it t collides but the other world the world so much like this will pass us close RDA and go on safe and sound around the sun again tony do you believe in god that to do with this so much that this has 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 the god of wrath and vengeance but the god who also could be merciful to men for iles hes sending two worlds to us tory tony not one not just the one that will destroy us nes iles sending the world that may save us tool too I 1 save us what do you mean what the league ot of the last days Is working on tony the chance of escape offered by the world like ours which will pass so close and go on we may transfer to it tony if we have the will and the skill and the nervel nerve 1 we could send a rocket to the moon today if it would do us any good it if anyone could possibly live on the moon after he got there well bron ja fl A I 1 y r 1 at ten the gong ong rang the stock market opened ened one man dropped dead at his first glance upon the racing ticker son beta will pass us closer than the moon cronson bronson beta Is the size of the earth and therefore can have an atmosphere it Is perfectly possible that people who are able to reach it cati can live there its a world perhaps very like ours which has been in immutable cold and darkness for millions of icara bears probably and which indich now will be coming to tire life again think of 14 it tony the tremendous magnificent adventure of mak lug a try for it I 1 it was a world once like ours circling around some sun people lived on it and animals and plants and trees evolution bad occurred there too and progress civilization had come thousands of years of it maybe tens of thousands of years perhaps much more than we have yet known perhaps also much less its the purest speculation to guess in what stage that world was when it was torn from its suu sun and sent spinning into space but in whatever stage it was in you may be sure it Is in exactly that stage now tor for when it left its sun life became extinct the rivers the takes lakes the seas the very air froze and became solid en casing 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 to life nor the animals or birds or other things but the cities will stand there unchanged the implements their homes all will remain and be uncovered again it if this world were not doomed what an adventure to try tor for that one conyl and a possible adventure tura ture a perfectly possible adventure with the powers at our disposal today tony recollected after a while that balcom had bid him to learn from hendron as definitely as possible the date and nature of the next nest announcement how would it affect stocks would the stock open at all ile he remembered at last it was a business day downtown he had duties contracts to buy and orders to sell stocks he did not venture to ask to have hendron awakened to speak to him but before ten he did leave eve ile he walked to the subway gamme five cents for a cup of coffee tony stopped stared this panhandler too was trapped with him and kyto and eve and all the rest on the rim of the world which was coming to its end did he have an inkling of it whether or not obviously today he must eat tonys hand went into his bis pocket speculation about the masses assailed him what did they think this morning how differently would they do today CHAPTER III aana AT T TEN the gong rang and the stock market opened there had been no addition to public knowledge in the newspapers the news ticker carried as additional information only the effect of the announcement on the markets la in europe which already had been open for hours it was plain that the wild eyes ey es of terror looked across the oceans and the land across rice fields and prairies out of the smoke of cities everywhere the stock market opened promptly at ten one man dropped dead at his first glance upon the racing ticker on the floor of the exchange itself there was relative quiet when the market Is most busy it Is most silent phones were choked with regular crowded speech boys ran the men stood and spoke in careful tones at the posts millions of shares began to change hands at prices down the ticker lagged as never in the wildest days of the boom and at noon in patent adais slon sion of the obvious necessity new york followed the example already set by london paris and berlin the great metal doors boomed shut there would be no more trading for an indeterminate time until the scientific situation became cleared up balcom came into his office he put his head on tonys desk not sobbed tony opened a dr drawer tool out a whisky bottle which had bad re posed in it unopened for or a year and poured a stiff dose into a drinking cup bilcox swallowed it as if it were milk took another and walked out dazedly tony procured ills his hat and walked out every one else was on the street people in herds and throngs never seen on wall or broad street or on tills this stretch of broadway but who now were sucked in by this unparalleled u excitement from the east side tho the river front the bowery and likewise keIse Il down from upper fifth a and d from park avenues women with babies peddlers elderly g gentlemen dowagers proud mis tresses wives school children and working people clerks stenographers everywhere all trapped trap ped thought though t tony all trapped together on the rim of the world did they know it did they feel it tony droppel into a restaurant where though it was only after noon an evening of hilarity already had arrived the exchange was closed no one knew exactly why or v nhat hat was to happen why care that was the air here two men of tonys age acquaintances in school and friends in wall street stopped at ills his table IV were re going the rounds come along their taxi squeezed th through roub broadway in which frantic police poll men wrestled vainly with overwhelming wh elming crowds it stopped at a brownstone house in the west forties A night club and it was crowded though the sun was still shining the three floors of the house were filled with people in business clothes drinking and dancing on the top floor door two roulette wheels were surrounded by players tony saw heaps of chips the piles of bills ue ile looked at the faces of the players and recognized two or three of them they were hectic faces the market had closed this was a real smash not merely a money smash a smash of the whole world ahead naturally money was losing its value but men played for it cheered when they won groaned when they lost and staked again the limit had been taken oft off the game downstairs at the bar were three ethree girls to whom tonys two friends immediately attached themselves they were pretty girls of the kind that broadway produces by an over night incubation girls who had been born far from the great white way girls whose country and small town attitudes had vanished all of them had hair transformed from its original shade of ashen blonde around their eyes were beaded lashes their voices were high their silk clothes adhered to their bodies they drank and laughed heres beres to old bronson they toasted TI heres eres to the ol 01 world coming to an endt endl tony sat with them clarissa jac quelene luel quel lne bettina Cettl na lie he gazed at althem them laughed with them drank with them but he thought of eve asleep at last he hoped eve slender its as they young as they far tar far lovelier than they and bearing within her mind and soul the frightful burden of the full knowledge knowledg know led e of this day after a while tony looked again at the motley crowd and across the room he be saw a friend sitting alone in a booth tony rose and went toward the man lie was a person a personage worthy of notice ue ile was lean gray haired immaculate smooth ills IDS dark eyes were remote and unseeing first nights L knew new him mothers ot of very rich daughters daughter s mothers of daughters of impeccable lineage sought him wherever the gayety gaiety of the gay world went he could be found southampton newport biarritz Biar ritz cannes nice deauville ralin palm beach lie he was like old silver yet he was not old forty perhaps A bachelor nis ills name was peter vanderbilt and he was trapped too tony was thinking as he saw him trapped with him and eve and kyto and the panhandler and bettina and jacqueline Jacquel lne and all the rest on the rim of the world tony cleared his brain nello hello lie he said peter vanderbilt looked up and his face showed welcome tony jovel jove of all people glad to see you sit sit and contemplate lie if e beckoned a waiter and ordered youre a bit on the inside I 1 take it friend of the Ilen drons you know a bit more of going on yes admitted tony it was senseless to deny it to this nian man dont tell me dont break conn dences for my sake im not one hat has to have details ahead of allers funny it to think jf f the end of all this I 1 feel anted dont you all ot of it going to pieces I 1 reel eel like saying thank god co dl I 1 was sick of it every one was civilizations a wretched parody evidently there was a just and judging god after all and nos lies taking us in hand again the way lie did in noahs time good biln I 1 say but Ilen clendron dron and ills his scientists arent doing so well making a big mistake it they hold anything thin back bach much longer better tell anything no matter liow how had bad it Is have to as soon see nothing can be as bad as uncertainty topnotch top notch scientists ts but the human element Is the one thing they cant analyze and reduce to figures what they need Is a bonneil of public relations tell colu cole clendron Ilen dron I 1 recommend ivy lee rising he left tony and vanished in the throng tony rose secured his hat and went out the latest newspaper contained a statement from the white house the president rL requested quested that on the morrow every one return to work it promised that the government would maintain stability in the country and inveighed Inveigh ed violently a against ainest the exaggerated reaction of the american people to the scientists ts statement tony smiled business as usual I 1 business going on as usual during alterations it U rat ions he tb thought ought ile he took a taxi to the Ilen drons apartment several men whose voices he could overhear in loud argument were with cole hendron behind the closed doors of the lit big study on the roof no one was with live eve she he awaited him alone she was dressed carefully charmingly as she always was lie ile pressed her to him for a moment and for that instant when he kissed her and held her close all wonder and terror was sent away what mattered the end of everything it if first he be had her ile he had never dreamed of such delight in possession as he be felt holding her he had never dared dream of such response from her ber or from any one lie ile had won her and she him utterly As he thought of the cataclysm destroying ying them he thought of it coming to them together in each others arms and he could not care she felt it fully as he ner fingers touched his face with a passionate tenderness which tore him ia t 9 rip what an adventure to try for that one tony done it for us so suddenly and so completely tony the shadow of the sword I 1 suppose my dear oh my dearl I 1 remember reading it in kipling when I 1 was a boy but never understanding der standing it remember the two in love when they knew that one would surely die there la Is no happiness like that snatched under the shadow of the sword but we both shall die if either does tony so much better the voices beyond the closed door shouted louder and tony released her chos here eve said in reply to tonys question six men the secretary ot of state the governor mr borgan the chief of a newspaper chain two more she was not thinking about them sit down but dont sit near me tony weve got to think things out your tour fathers told them lies hes told them what will happen first I 1 mean when the bronson bodies both of them just pass close to the world and go on around the sun more mora than enough for them now its not time yet to tell them of the encounter you see the mere passing close will be terr terrible 1 lit 0 e enough n 0 ull why because of the tides tor for one thing the moon which Ls la hardly an eighteenth of the world in mass raises tides that run forty to sixty sesty feet in places like the B bay ay ot of fundy ot course the tides tony realized iced aloud TO BE BB CONTINUED |