Show WHEN COLLIDE ienn babin 70 philip alt r 3 by W NU SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS david ransdell Rans doll arrives at new york tork from south africa aith photographic plates tor for dr cole hendren benaron He naron tony drake calls at the Hen drons apartment eve hendron with whom tony Is in love introduces to doiy ny to ransdell ransdall professor bronson eminent astronomer has discovered two planets that have been brought under the attraction of our sun the result of the inevitable collision must be the end and of the earth the approaching bodies are referred to as bronson alpha and bronson beta hendron plans a space ship on which he hopes to make a landing on bronson beta but has not been able to find it a metal which will withstand the heat and pressure of atomic energy to be used in propelling the space ship tidal wa waves V es and quakes change the entire surface of the earth the ile aien dron colony suf fera but survives hendrena Hen drons drens camp Is attacked by a hunger crazed horde and halt half of the personnel Is IB killed I 1 hendron calls the survivors into the ship and sends it aloft the thousands in the tha attacking horde are wiped out by the searing blast emitted by the ship hendron hendren announces the building of a second and larger space ship so all may escape to bronson beta just before the ships are to leave the earth eve and tony find two little children left there by their father who has dla disappeared CHAPTER X continued 19 father advanced the time 11 returned eye ere ne ile decided to give lre a few minutes wore more of warning or else he fooled me too you are carrying that child asked tony eve had bad the little girl yes tes said eve you are carrying the boy yes said tony rules kules or no rules necessities or no necessities if we can take sheep and goats j I 1 guess we can take these two 1 I guess so said eve and and she strode strongly beside him into the edge edee of illumination as the great floodlights flood lights blazed out the buildings were nere all slight alight and everybody was bustling the loading of the two arks long ago had bad been completed the passengers ran back and forth calling crying slinking shaking hands embracing one another they were all to go every one in sight was billed on the space ships but some would be on one ship some on the other would they meet again on bronson beta would either ship get there tony hurrying to his station appreciated precia ted how bow wisely hendron had bad acted in deceiving them all even himself as to the nig night here ho he was vas second in command of the first spat span ship carrying a strange child in contravention of all orders the chief commanders daughter also carried carri eil a child no 1 0 ne stopped them not hendron himself it was the last hour nn baith and mens minds were rocking roc kiiK the im ingles les blew again aln and tony ee posItIng the boy with eve ere set about his business of checking the personnel of his ship three hun hull gred yards away dave ransdell lie personnel ot of his larger arty ty nans ransdell dell for a moment ran over lie ile asked for Ilen hendron dron but no he sought also eve tony did not interfere ter fere he allowed them their last minutes together A third time the bugles blew tony completed his check of rew and passengers thrice lie he mew blew his bis whistle from off to the right v where here the second lay dave Eans Rans dells arill signal answered close valves and locks there was wag no one on the round no onel all checked and lall allied ted thrice over yet as tony left the last lock open to gaze out again and listen he heard a faint cry the father of the children I 1 could be take him too one man more of course they could make it tony withheld the final signal the voice was faint and far away and in its thin notes could be deleted the vibrations of tense ani ety it came from where the airplane field lay presently he made lut ut syllables but not their meaning hello aello he yelled mightily who ho la Is it back came the thinly shouted reply ply gest mol duquesne at fendez ten dez tonys mind translated its 1 duquesne esnil 1 walt wait on the opposite side of the flying field a lone human figure struggled into the rays of the floor lights it was vas the figure of a short fat man running clumsily waving his bis arms and pausing at intervals to shout duquesne the name had a familar famili I 1 sound then tony remembered duquesne was the french scientist in charge of building the french space ship that had been reported to him by james long ago ue lie turned to the attendants at the airlock get Ilen clendron dron he be said tell him duquesne la Is here alone ue ile operated d tho the winch which moved the stairway back to the hull of tile ship the sl ort fat roan man trotted across the field stopping frequently to gesticulate and shout about attended Atten dez I 1 mol duquesne at last he scrambled up the steps of the concrete foundations to the ship ile he rushed across the platform and arrived at the airlock he wore the remnants of a khall khaki uniform which did not fit him protruding from the breast pocket of the tunic was the butt of a revolver ile he was black haired blackened and big nosed when lie he began to speak brokenly he first swore in french and then said in EB english 1 I am duquesnel the great duquesnel Duque the celebrated duquesnel quesnel the famous duquesne the french physicist me duquesne this I 1 take for the ship of cole andron yes then so I 1 am here tell him I 1 have come from france in three months running a steamboat by myself almost flying across this foul country with my plane which it Is broken down near what was milwaukee and to here I 1 have walked by myself alone these many days you are going now yes tell him to go tell him duquesne Is here tell him I 1 leave those pigs those dogs those cows those onions who would build such a foolish ship as they will break their necks in I 1 knew this endro n ship would fly so I 1 hire hare come to it bahl bah they are stupid my french colleagues more suitable for the motormen nio of trams than for flyers in the outer space at that instant Ilen hendron dron arrived at the top of the spiral staircase lie he rushed forward his eyes alight duquesne quesne by G d duquesnel duquesne im I 1 in delighted youre in the nick of time in forty minutes we would have been away from here duquesne gripped Ilen drons hand and skipped around him as if he were playing a childs game with ills his free list fist he smote upon his breast he shouted so that the entire chamber reverberated am I 1 a tool fool that you should have to tell me what hour was set for your departure have I 1 no brains do I 1 know nothing about astronomy have I 1 never dever studied physics 7 id lots charming friends glorious americans fools nave have I 1 no brain ln can I 1 not anticipate here I 1 am suddenly he let so go of Hen drons hand and stopped dancing lie ile bowed very gravely first to nen d dron ron then to tony then to the crew gentlemen he said lets be going lets be on our way what about the ships that were being built in other countries in europe hendron asked aske d him the english returned duquesne they will get away what then who knows can you muddle through space cole En cendron Endro dron nl I 1 ask it but the english are set sound they have a good ship cut but as ail to them I 1 have made my an answer I 1 am here the germans demanded nen lien dron the frenchman gestured too advanced they have tried to take every contingency into account too many conting contingency encyl they hill ill make the most beautiful voyage of all allor or by far the worst As to fill all the others again I 1 observe I 1 have preferred to be here tony looked at his number and found his place eve was near by him with their two children beside lier her she had sat up to welcome him ive been terribly nervous of course I 1 knew come but it has been hard waiting here were all set tony said as he adjusted himself on the floor harness barness below in the control room the men took their posts Ilen clendron dron strapped himself under the glass screen ile he fixed his eyes to an optical instrument across which were two hair lines very close to the point of intersection was a small star the instrument had been set so that when the star reached the center of the cross the discharge was to be started about him was a battery of switches which were controlled by a master switch and a lever that worked not unlike a rheostat over a series of ills control room crew were fastened in their places with their arms tree free to manipulate various levera CHAPTER XI HENDRON turned to the crossed babra on the optical instrument and began to corint count every man in the room stiffened to attention I 1 one two three four fire ills hand band went to thi the switch the room was filled vath a vibrating hum 6 six seven eight nine ten the sound 0 of the hum rose now to a feline shriek eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen ready 1 sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty ills hand band moved to the instrument that was like a rheostat nis ills other hand was clenched white knuckled on its his straps twenty one twenty two twenty three twenty four tv enty five simultaneously the crew shoved levers and the rheostat moved up an inch As he counted signals flis flashed lied to the other ship they must leave at the same moment A conr redoubling that which had bad re sounded below the ship on the night of the attack deafened all other sound tony thought were leaving the earth A quivering of the ship that jarred jaried the soul an AD on the feet ITen Ilen drong drons lips moving in counting that could no longer be heard the eyes of the men of the crew watching those lips so that when they reached fifty a second switch was touched and the room was plunged into darkness relieved only by the dim rays of tiny bulbs over the instruments themselves A slight change in the feeling of air pressure against the eardrums tony readied reached toward eve and felt her hand band stretching to meet his the fiery trail of the second ark rising skyward on its apex apes of scintillating til vapor already was miles away in the passenger chamber the unendurable noise rose in a steady crescendo until all those who lay there were pre pressed ased with lith increasing force upon the deck nauseated terrified overwhelmed their senses foundered and many of them lapsed into unconsciousness tony who was still able to think despite the awful acceleration of the ship realized presently that the din was diminishing from his rather scanty knowledge of physics ho he tried to deduce what was happening either the lie ark had reached air so thin that it did not carry sound waves or else it vas as traveling sa so fast that its sound could not catch up with it the speed of that diminution seemed to increase the chamber became quieter and quieter tony reflected in spite of the fearful torment he was undergoing that eventually the only sound which would afflict it would come from the breeches of the tubes in the control rooms rooms and the rooms themselves would insulate that presently he be realized that the ringing in his ears was louder than the noise made by the passage of the ship eve had relaxed tile grip on his hand but at that moment he felt a pressure its horrible it eve cried yes res but the worst Is over well be accelerating for some time though energy returned to him el he D struggled with the bonds that held his relief map the whole ot of the united states part ot of europe europa and the ilia north polar regions glona re were revealed to their roye gue in wonder they regarded the world that had bren been their home they could see clearly the colossal changes which had been wrought upon it the great inland sea that occupied the mississippi sis sippi valley sparkled in the morning sun the myriad volcanoes which had sprung into being along the western cordillera were for the most part hidden under a pall of smoke and clouds Ilen gendron dron signaled a command to his crew who he had been standing un buckled from their slings at attention tent lon they now nov seated themselves sel yes 1 I 1 assure you Ilen clendron dron told tony and eye eve and their fellow passengers that except for its monotony the trip will offer you no further great discomfort until we reach bronson beta when we shall under the necessity of 0 repeating approximately the same maneuver in something less than an hour we are going to turn the periscope on france in an effort to observe the departure of the french equivalent of our ships we are at the moment trying to locate our second ark which took its course at a distance from us to avoid any chance of 0 collision and being between us and the sun Is now temporarily por pora rily artly lost in the glare ot of the sun hendron disappeared through the opening in the ceiling which contained the spiral staircase fans distributed the air inside the ship outside there was vacuum against which the airlocks were sealed the air of the ship breathed and restored was not actually fresh although chemically it was perfectly breathable the soft roar of the rocket propulsion tubes lubes fuddled cuddled the senses the sun glared in a black sky studded with brilliant stars to the right of the sun the great glowing crescents of bronson alpha and bronson beta loomed larger and larger eve sat with tony its as a periscope turned on them and nd displayed them on the screen they could plainly see that bronson alpha was below and approaching the earth bronson beta slowly turning was higher and much nearer the ship do you see their relation she asked between the bronson bodies said tony arent they nearer together than they have ever been before 11 much nearer and as father and professor bronson calculated I 1 0 7 av N A J I 1 ell I 1 41 xi V fal f the passengers ran back and I 1 fikh calling crying shaking en 10 hands they were all to go il every one in sight was bil 14 feted on the space ships but 0 o some bould be on one ship 30 and some or the other head and presently spoke again to T ve she was deathly pale ne lie looked at the other passengers many of them were still unconscious most of them only partly aware of what was happening lie ile tried to lift his head from the floor door but the upward pressure still overpowered him film then the lights in the cabin went out and the screen was illuminated across one side was a glimpse of the trail which they were leaving a bright hurtling yellow stream but it was not that which held field his attention la in tile the center of the screen was part of a curved disk tony realized that tie be n as staring up at half of the northern hemisphere of the earth once again eve pressed his hand anil and tony returned the pressure in the control room still sat in tile the sling with his hand on the rheostat WS eyes traveled to a meter which ivsich showed their distance away from tile the earth eartle then they ou on to a chronometer lie ile had already determined the time necessary for or acceleration one hundred and twelve minutes and he could not shorten it hendron operated the switch controlling the choice of periscopes in the midst of the glass screen the earth now appeared as a round globe its diameter in both directions clearly apparent more than half of it liy in shadow but tile the illuminated half was like a great bronson beta being much the smaller and lighter ll was revolving about bronson alpha the orbit nas not a circle it was a very long ellipse sometimes therefore this brought dronson bronson beta much closer to alpha than at other times when they went around the sun the enormous force of tile the suns attraction further distorted the orbit and bronson beta probably Is nearer alpha now than it ever anas as be fore also notice it la is at the point in its orbit which Is more favorable for us you mean tor for our landing on it asked tony for that and especially la Is it |