Show WIEN CO 1071 D ea alky 01 ballieu andl az ph h P W lit celb by EJ 1 I L IF WN U sor ico THE STORY FROM THE BEC BEGINNING DINNING david ransdell arrives at new york from south africa commissioned by lord rhondle and professor bronson the astronomer to deliver a case containing photographic plates to dr cole flen hendron dron in new york tony drake calls at the hondroes Hon drons apartment ransdell arrives and eve hendron with whom tony Is deeply in love introduces tony to ransdall Rans doll newspapers publish a statement by Ilen clendron dron saying that professor eronson dronson has discovered two planets that have been brought broucht under tho the attraction of our sun the result of the inevitable collision must bo be the end of the earth the approaching bodies are referred to as eron bronson on alpha and bronson beta beonson beta v mil iii pass but the other va hilll H slit hit tile the earth and jem 0 it to dovlat means 0 of transferring to bronson beta eta Is what Is occupying the minds mind of the members of the league of the last days CHAPTER ill III continued S cronson Rr Pr onson beta Is the size of 0 the vurah arth tony bronson A alpha ibba is estimated to have eleven to twelve times that mass that sphere will pass tile the first time within the orbit of the moon crimson bronson ecta beta will raise tides many times as high and bronson alpha you ant express it by mere multiplication tony new kew york rork will be under water to the tops of its towers a aldal wave he be bond oud nil all imagination I 1 the seacoasts of all tha th 2 world will be swept by the seas sucked up toward the sky and washed back and forth the wives will wash back to the appalachians hians and it will be the same in europe and asia holland belgium lure half of france and germany half of india nod and china will he be under tile the wave of water therell be nn an earth tide ton earth tide earthquake from tile the pull on the crust of the earth some of the men writing to father think that the earth will be torn to pieces jut just by the first passing of bronson alpha but some of them third think it will survine the strain what does your father think lie ile thinks the earth will survive the first stress and that it Is possible that a fifth of the population may live through it too of course only a guess A firth fifth repeated tony A fifth 0 of all on the earth eve was watching him through the years of their friendship and fondness she had biad seen tony as a normal man to whom everything happened was happy felicitous and the only crises in which slip he observed him were enter agencies on the ohp football field and alarms in the stock marl market et which in the first case represented mere sport and in the second money which he did not properly understand because all ills his life he had possessed money enough and more now as she watched him she thought that she bould meet with him and slie she exulted therein the most terrific reality that man had bad ever faced so far as he had yet been called upon he had met it without attempting to evade it his effort had been solely for more corn coin understanding A contrast to some of those men amon among them men who were called the greatest in the nation whose voices rose loud again behind the closed doors some one she cou could id not identify him from his voice which ranted in a strange shrill rage evidently was battling her father shouting him down denying what had been laid before them all somebody said tony seems not to like what he has to hear who Is he tony somebody who very used to hearing what he like oh oft eve evel my dear my dear for the first time in my life id like to be a poet I 1 wish for words to say what I 1 feel the sudden of voices warned them that a door from tile the study had opened some one had come out it was her father F for or a few moments he stood regarding I 1 them debating what he should say father eve said tony and I 1 tony and I 1 P her father nodded 1 I saw you for a few seconds before you real iced I 1 was here eve and tony tony flushed lu shed we mean what you saw sir lie he said we more than mean it IL were going to be married as soon as we can arent we eve ave can we father cole clendron Ilen dron shook ills bis head there cant be marrying or love for either of you no time to tell you why not only there cant why cant there be sir theres going to be altogether too much else iu in a few mouths months t biow low meanwhile dont spoil my plans by eloping and dont go on doing what I 1 just saw only make it harder for both of you as see when you figure out before you yon tony theres nothing personal in that I 1 like you ind you know it if the world were chig to remain id not say a word iut ut the world cannot possibly re maln we can talk of it this its later lie tudy study door again opened opener ope nei some one called liim him anil and he returned to the argument in the next nest room now demanded tony of eve that in the world which cannot possibly remain does he mean by that that ne e love and marry because were going to die all the more reason for it and quicker too neither of us can possibly guess what be means tony wed ned bs be months behind him in thinking fr for lies hes done nothing else really tor for half a year but plan what we what all the human race will have to do lie ile means I 1 think thin 1 that lies hes put us in some scheme of things that wont let us marry the argument in the room broke up and the arguers emerged in a few minutes they all were gone and tony dolight cole clendron Ilen dron in his big study where the plates which had come from south africa nere ere spread upon the table there were squares of stars usually the same square of stars repeated over and over again there seemed to be a score of exposures of the identical plate of close clus aclus stars stara you were downtown a today rony YS yes today they took it they they took it and closed the exchange I 1 hear and half the businesses in town had bad a holiday for known tor for quits quite some time that something has been hanging over them hanging oer the marlet market this morning we halt half told them hat it Is and they thought they believed it just now I 1 told six men the other halt half or most ot of it new york will be under water to the top of its towers A tidal wave beyond all imagination i the seacoast of the world W will III be swept by the seas anil and you heard them tony they wont have it the world vont come to an end it cant possibly collide with another world because well for one thin thing it never has done sueh such a thing before and for another they wont have it not when you dinell adnell upon the details they wont have it tomorrow therell be a great swing swim back in feeling tony the exchange will open again business Is going on a good thing im glad of 0 it the trouble Is men arent really educated up to the telescope yet as they are to the microscope if a doctor took a bit of cell tissue from any one of those men who were just here and put it under the microscope and said sorry but that means you will die there a man of them who promptly put his affairs in shape none of them would ask to look through the microscope himself hed know it would mean nothing to him cut but they asked for Bron sons plates I 1 showed them here they are tony look here see this field of 0 stars all those used fixed points those round specks every single one of them Is a star cut but see here there Is a slight a very slight streak but still a streak there right beside it Is another one something I 1 has moved tony I 1 two points of light have moved in EL a starfield star field where nothing ought to movel A mistake perhaps pe lImps A low flaw in the coating of the hie plate bronson IS ronson con this and other possibilities ue he photographed the starfield star start field iod again aud and again night after night and each time you see tony tile the same game two points of 0 light make a bit of streak no chance ot of mis take lake down there where nothing dithing ought to be aloid moling two objects have moved iut but all we have to show for it are two tuo tiny streaks on a photographic plate what do they mean gentlemen the time has come to put your house in order the affairs of nil all the world the affairs of every one aling in the world naturally they cant really believe it IL bronson himself though ile he watched those planets himself night after night for months really belle bele e it nor could the other men who villo watched in other observe atomics south ol of the equator dut but they searched back over old plates of the rame ame patch of the sky and they found in fit that at samp tile starfield star field what they had missed be fore those same two specks always making tiny streaks two objects that stars where only stars ought to be two strange objects that always were moving where nothing ought to moe we need only three good ob lons of nil an object to plot the course or of a moving body and at al ready eronson bronson succeeded in obtain ing a score of observations of those these ile he worked out the result and it was so sensational that from the very first lie swore to so secrecy crecy every one who worked with him and with whom he corresponded they obtained altogether hundreds of observations and the result always worked out the same they all checked eve says she has told you what hat that result Is to be cole Ilen clendron dron said yes tes said tony she told me and I 1 told these men wh who 0 demanded toman deman man led ordered roe mc to explain to them everything we had I 1 told fit them m that those specks showing on the bronson plates wore were miring so that thai they would enter our solar system and one of them would then comp coin into collision viah ich our world they said all right you see it really meant nothing to them originally then I 1 told them that before fit alic encounter both of these moving bodies eronson alpha and bronson beta would first pass us close by and cause tides that would rise six hundred feet over us its from froin new york fork to san francisco ind and of course london and paris faris and all seacoasts everywhere they began to oppose that lint bo be cause they could understand it I 1 told them that the passing of the bronson bodies would cause earthquakes on a scale unimaginable halt half the inland cities would be shaken down and the effect below the crust would set volcanoes olea noes into activity everywhere and us its never since the world belan began I 1 said perhaps a fifth of the people would survive the first passing ot of the Z aw N A F 4 rl P r M I 1 I 1 74 7 4 Z 4 I 1 Q 0 1 7 A z ag N A q W A WS bronson bodies I 1 tried to point out some of the areas on the surface ot of the earth which would be comparatively safe 1 I could not designate new york fork or philadelphia or boston they told me that tomorrow I 1 must make a more reassuring statement e cole hendron gazed down again at Bron sons plates 1 I suppose after all it make much difference whether or not we succeed in moving a few million more people into the safer areas they will be safe for only eight months more in any case for eight months later we meet liron bron son alpha on the other side of the surl sun and no one on earth w will 11 I 1 e escape S nut but there Is a chance that a few individuals may leave tile the earth and live I 1 am not a religious man as you to know tony but as eve said to you it seems that it cannot be more mere chance that there comes to us out of space not merely the sphere that will destroy us but that ahead of us there spins a world like our own which some of us some of us may reach and be safe 0 tony took dave fl nans ausdell dell home with him the south african want ed to jee see new york when tony woke his first thought was of 0 eve to have held her close to him to ta lime haie caught her against him while bhe clung to him her lips on his and then to lie be forbidden her to lie be finally and completely forbidden to love lierl her 1 her father not only forbade that joy ho he denied its further possibility for them and tier her father controlled Iroll cil tier not merely as tier her father ather but as a lender leader of this stran strange c society tile uncanny power of which tony drake was just beginning to feel the league of the last ast days I 1 A pled pledged cd and sworn circle ot of men first in science all over the world who devoted selves to their purposes with a sternness an and I 1 A 1 dibel discipline plIne lint recalled the steadfastness of the caily christians who submitted to any martyrdom to found the church they demanded and commander commanded a com tote allegiance to this tyrannical society live ive was sworn tony found IS li ansdell 11 at 1 a winlow window of tile the living room morning paper was spread over a table hello lello I said tony kyto tolls tells me youve been up awhile anil and havo have had breakfast youve altogether too loo many good habits the south african smiled sallied pleasantly ill need more than I 1 hac raffi y n r I 1 A 4 1 I 1 r V ii 1 Y A ry i al aw w a w M tg l fi ry r 1 I told them that the passing of F the eronson dronson bodies would gauss earthquakes on a scale anable half the inland cites would do be shaken C down for a starter if im joining league of the last days lie lic oh oi served then youve decided tor to a tony it was one of file he top tapir 1 n they discussed last yes the new york chapter for choice youre not going back to cap town no headquarters will lie ile here or wherever doctor Ilen clendron dron W iz good said tony tind took the paper to the vl table where here ransdell Kans dell joined him for another cup of coffee the ile two young mon men of widel different natures and background and training sipped their heir coffee and glan glanced neross across the table well questioned tony at last want to tell rue me how yoli ercill re il feel runny funny confessed the south sout af rican 1 I bring up tile the ri final na I 1 pro that the worlds going to end ant am on the trip find the dear old r ont foot stool a pleasanter plea santer place for mp than I 1 ever figured before it michl be to mention the minor matters matter first ransdell continued in ills his eu en ga angly frank find and outright ait way ive 1 never u r lived life like tills this ever for a day clay ive never been v before tony smiled that reminds remind rue me wonder vonder it if let kyto into the league not as our valet im afraid tho south african said 1 I hope you yoi I 1 arr mit me the our for the duration 0 my stay I 1 do rancy fancy living like III I 1 must admit ill also tell you that thai I 1 appreciate N very ery much just hoin I 1 around whore Ilen clendron dron Is ic I 1 know there really was a girl like her anywhere in the world which Is going to end we must remember tony warned him bill will you permit me then a particularly ticul arly personal remark inquired inquire the south african shoot said tony it Is that it if I 1 were you in your place I 1 particularly care what happened my lly place you mean with with miss Ilen clendron dron in other words I 1 heartily congratulate you you dont know what ahat youre talking about sald tony too brusquely and realized it 1 I beg your pardon I 1 mean I 1 thank you the stock exchange I 1 see Is going to be open today in fact it Is undoubtedly open now and I 1 am not I 1 ought to tia have ve sald said to you ransdell im glad youre staying on stay on right here with iilo me it if you like theres no sense in my going to the office theres no sense in anything thin on the world now but kropar I 1 ang 11 g and perfecting the space sit ship which besides watching wal ching the stars has been the hie business of the be in t r brains in the league of the ln libit t days TO dr BE CONTINUED |