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When Worlds Collide
SYNOPSIS
ma 11 Ronsdell, noted aviator, ar-
_ Dar Africa,
Saw York from South
«’ ive * * commissioned at Cape-
h4V g been U Rhondin and Professor
t0 hT U>rd to deliver a
Br ° n the astronomer, photographic plates to
‘VVoli containing New York. Tony
Hendron, in
? Vrak JY calls at the Hendrons’ and Eve apart- Hen-
, Ransdell arrives
with whom Tony Is deeply in
d introduces Tony to Kansdell.
Ne ' York newspapers publish a state-
nv Hendron saying that Profes-
t has discovered two
Bronson must have broken
urets which and
from another star or sun
? been brought under the attrac¬
ts *1 . of our sun. The must result be the of the end in- of
*. table collision approaching bodies
-h The are
tarred to as Bronson Beta Alpha will pass, and
Bronson ft Beta. Bronson
the other will hit the earth and
V u i it To devise means of trans-
® ‘ , sh Beta, which is
Innrh to Bronson
like the earth, is what is oc-
“ the minds of the members of
nvlng East Days.
(h# League of the
CHAPTER III—Continued
—5—
-I could not designate New York or
Philadelphia or Boston . . . They told
me that tomorrow I must make a more
reassuring statement.”
Cole Hendron gazed down again at
Bronson's plates.
-1 suppose, after ail, It doesn’t 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 Bronson Alpha on the other
side of the sun. And no one on
earth will escape.
"But there Is a chance that a few
Individuals may leave the earth and
live. 1 am not a religious man, as
you know, Tony; but as Eve said to
you, it seems that It cannot be mere
chance that there comes to us, out of
space, not merely the sphere that will
destroy us, but that ahead of It there
spins a world like our own which some
of us —some of us—may reach and be
safe,"
• •***••
Tony took Dave Kansdell home with
him. The South African wanted to
“see” New York.
When Tony woke his first thought
was of Eve.
To have held her close to him, to
have caught her against him while
she ciung to him, her lips on his—
and then to be forbidden her! To be
finally and completely forbidden to
love her!
Her father not only forbade that
Joy; he denied Its further possibility
for them. And her father controlled
her, not merely as her father, but as
a leader of this strange society, the
uncanny power of which Tony Drako
was just beginning to feel; The
League of the Last Days I
A pledged and sworn circle of men,
first in science all over the world, who
dovnted themselves tc their purposes
with a sternness and a discipline that
recalled the steadfastness of the early
L’hristians, who submitted to any mar¬
tyrdom to found the Church. They
demanded and commanded a complete
allegiance. To this tyrannical society
Eve was sworn. . . .
1'ony found Ransdell at a window
of the living-room. The morning pa¬
per was spread over a table.
“llelio,” said Tony. "Kyto tells me
you’ve been up awhile and have had
breakfast. You’ve altogether too
many good habits.”
The South African smiled pleasant¬
ly. "I’ll need more than I have for
a starter, If I’m joining the League
of the Last Days,” he observed.
"Then you’ve decided to?” asked
Tony, it was one of the topics they’d
discussed last night.
Ves. The New York chapter, for
choice.”
' Vou’re not going back to Cape¬
town?”
"•No. Headquarters will be here—or
wherever Doctor Hendron is.”
'l'bat's good,” said Tony, and took
the paper to the breakfast table,
where Kansdell Joined him for another
cup of coffee.
Hie two young men, of widely dif¬
ferent natures and background and
Uuining, sipped their coffee and
glanced at each other across the
table.
"W ell,” questioned Tony at last,
want to tell me how you really feel?”
Tunny,” confessed the South Af¬
rican. * l bring up the final proof that
the world’s going to end; and on the
trip find the dear old footstool a pleas-
antcr place for me than I ever fig-
Ur !' 1 before J t might be.
. . .
,
‘O mention the minor matters
■ r '’ Kansdell continued In his en-
fugingly frank and outright way, “I’ve
C' *er lived like this even for a day.
ive “ever been valeted before.”
'ony smiled. “That reminds me;
wonder if they’ll let Kyto Into the
League?”
Not as our valet, I’m afraid,” the
■ 11 n African said. “I hope
the you per-
>-■!( me ‘our’ for the duration of
“ - stay, i do fancy living like this,
must admit. I’ll also tell you that
appreciate very much just being
•round where Miss Hendron is. I
t know there really was a girl
ber anywhere In the world.”
„ ' nich
is going to end, we must re-
';“ ber .” Tony warned him.
" ]! 1 you permit me, then, a par-
muiarly personal remark?” Inquired
South African.
“Shoot,” said Tony,
t Is that If I were you In your
' c, 1 wouldn’t particularly care
w, mt happened.**
“My place, you mean, with—”
ltn Hendron. in other
w 1 he ?rtUy
congratulate you.”
know what you’re talk
' said Tony—teo brusquely,
By EDWIN BALMER
and
PHILIP WYLIE
Copyright by Edwin Balmer A Philip Wyl!«
WNU Service
and realized it. “I beg your pardon.
1 mean, I thank you The Stock
. . .
Exchange, I see, is going to be open
today. In fact, it undoubtedly is open
now; and 1 am not ... I ought to
have said to you, Kansdell, I’m glad
you’re staying on. Stay on right here
with me, if you like.
“There’s no sense in my going to the
office. There’s no sense In anything
on the world, now, but preparing and
perfecting the Space Ship which—be¬
sides watching the stars—has been
the business of the best brains in the
League of the Last Days.”
Tony went downtown; he visited his
office. Habit held him, as it was hold¬
ing most of the hundreds of millions
of humans In the world this day.
Habit—and reaction.
What was threatened, could not be:
If Cole Hendron and his brother sclen
tists refused, there were plenty of oth
er people to put out reassuring state¬
ments; and the dwellers on the rim of
the world regained much of their as¬
surance. The President of the United
sixty scientists had merely suggested
disturbances of importance; and he
predicted that if they occurred, they
would be less than was now feared.
Professor Copley, known to Tony
as a friend of Coie Hendron’s, called
at the office.
“I’ve some things to sell,” he said,
and laid down upon Tony’s desk an
envelope full of stock certificates.
“I’m just back from Peru,” he ex¬
plained cheerfully, “where 1 have been
watching the progress of the Bronson
bodies. Hendron tells me that you
know the whole truth about them.”
“It is the truth,-then?” asked Tony.
“Exactly what do you* think will hap¬
pen to us?”
“What will happen,” retorted Pro¬
fessor Copley, cheerfully enough, “if
you toss n walnut in front of an eight¬
een-inch gun at the Instant the shell
comes out? So, I say, sell my stocks.
My family, and my personal responsi¬
bilities, consist of only my wife and
myself; there are many things we
have desired to do which we have sac¬
rificed In exchange for a certain se¬
curity In the future. There being no
future, why not start doing what we
want immediately?—if now Is the day
to sell.”
“Your guess on that,” said Tony,
“will be as good as mine, llow do
you find that people are taking It?”
“Superficially, today rhey deny; but
they have had a terrible shock. Shock
—that’s the first effect. Bound to be.
Afterward—they’ll behave according
to their separate natures. But now
they react In denials, because they
cannot bear the shock.
“All over the world! Some are
standing in the Place de 1’Opera In
Paris, hour after hour, I hear, silent
for the most part, incredulous, numb.
These are the few that are too Intelli¬
gent merely to deny and reject, too
stunned to substitute a sudden end
of everything for the prospect of years
ahead for which they scrimped and
saved.
“In Berlin there are similar groups.
And imagine the reaction In Ked
square, my friend! Imagine the Rus¬
sians trying to realize that their revo¬
lution, their savage effort to remodel
themselves and their Inner nature, has
gone for nothing. All wasted! Imagine
being Stalin tonight, my friend. What
horror! What humor! What merci¬
less depths of tragedy!
“Imagine the haughty Mussolini,
when he finds that the secret he could
not extort from his iron-souled men
of learning is the secret of Fascism’s
vanity. Vanity of vanities! All, In
the end, is vanity! Dust!
“Imagine our President trying to de¬
cry, now. this! Ah, I could weep. But
I do not Instead—I laugh. I laugh
because few men—but some—some, my
friend—even In the face of this colos¬
sal ignominy of fate, go on and on
through the night, burning out their
brains yet In the endeavor to guide
their own destinies. What a gesture!
But today—what appalling shock ! And
afterward—what a scene! When the
world—the fifteen hundred millions of
human beings realize, all of them, that
nothing can save them, and they can
not possibly suve themselves. What •
DADE COUNTY TIMES: THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1935
made man on the earth. A»d the Lord
said, I will destroy man, whom I have
created, from the face of the earth)
both man and beast and creeping
things, and the fowls of the air; for
It repenteth me that I have made
them.’ And then God thought It over
and softened a little; and He warned
Noah to build tfie ark to save hiraself
and some of the beasts, so that they
could start nil over again.
“Evolution, you know, has been going
on upon this world for maybe five hun¬
dred million years; and I guess God
thought that if all we’d reached In all
that time was what we have now, He’d
wipe us out forever. So He started
that streak toward us to meet us and
destroy us utterly. That’s Bronson
Alpha. But before He sent It too far
on its way maybe He thought it all
aver again and decided to send Bran¬
son Beta along too.
“You see, after all, God had been
working on the world for five hundred
millions of years; and that must be
an appreciable time, even to God. So
I think He said, ‘I’ll wipe them out;
but I’ll give some of them a chance.
If they’re good enough to take the
chance and transfer to the other world
I’m sending them, maybe they're worth
another trial. And I’ll save five hun¬
dred millions of years.’ For we’ll start
on the other world, Tony, where we
left off here.”
“I see that,” Tony said. “What’s in
that to forbid my loving you now, my
taking you in my arms, my—”
“I wish we could, Tony!”
“Then why not?”
“No reason not, If we were surely to
die here, Tony—with all the rest of
the world; but every reason not to, If
we go on the Space Ship.”
“I don’t see that!”
‘‘Don’t you? Do you suppose, Tony,
that the second streak in the sky—the
streak we call Branson Beta, which
will come close to this world, and pos¬
sibly receive ns snfe, before Bronson
Alpha wipes out all the rest—do you
suppose, Tony, that It was sent Just
for you and me?”
“I don’t suppose It wms sent at all,”
objected Tony impatiently. “I don’t be¬
lieve In a God who plans and repents
and wipes out worlds He made.”
‘‘I do. A few months ago I wouldn’t
have believed in Him; but since this
has happened, I do. What is coming is
altogether too precise and exact to be
unplauned by Intelligence somewhere,
or to be purposeless. And if the big
one is sent to wipe out the world, I
don’t believe the other Is sent Just to
let me go on loving you nnd you go
on loving me.”
“What is your Idea, then?”
“It’s sent to save, perhaps, some of
the results of five hundred million
years of life on this world; but not
you and me, Tony.”
“Why not? What are we?”
Eve smiled faintly. “We’re some of
the results, of course. As such, we
may go on the Space Ship. But If we
go, we cease to be ourselves, don’t you
see?”
“I don’t,” persisted Tony stubbornly.
“I mean, when we arrive on that
strange empty world—if we do—we
can’t possibly arrive as Tony Drake
and Eve Hendron, to continue a love
and a marriage started here. How In¬
sane that would be!”
“Insane?”
“Yes. Suppose one Space Ship got
across with, say, thirty In Its crew.
We land and begin to live—thirty alone
on an empty world as large as this.
What, on that world, would we be?
Individuals, paired and s«t off, each
from the others, as here? No; we be¬
come hits of biology, bearing within
us seeds far more important than our¬
selves—far more Important than our
prejudices and loves and hates.”
“Exactly what do you mean by that
Eve?”
“I mean that marriage on Bronson
Beta—If we reach It—cannot possibly
be what It Is here, especially if only a
few, a very few of us reach It. It will
be all-important then—it will be es¬
sential to take whatever action the cir¬
cumstances may require to establish
the race.”
“You mean,” said Tony savagely, re¬
membering the remarks at breakfast,
“if that flyer from South Africa—Rans¬
dell—also made the passage on that
Space Ship, and we all live, I may
have to give you up to him—when cir¬
cumstances seem to require It?”
“I don’t know, Tony. We can’t pos¬
sibly describe It now; we can’t Imag¬
ine the circumstances when we’re
starting all over again. But one thing
we can know—we must not fix rela¬
tions between us here which may only
give trouble.”
“Relations like love and marriage 1”
“They might not do at all, over
there.”
“You’re mad, Eve. Your father’s been
talking to you.”
“Of course he has; but there’s only
sanity In what he says. He has
thought so much more about It, he can
look so calmly beyond the end of the
world to what may be next, that—
that he won’t have us carry Into the
next world sentiments and attach¬
ments that may only bring us trouble
and cause quarrels or rivalry and
death. How frightful to fight and kill
each other on that empty world! So
we have to start freeing ourselves
from such things here.”
“I’ll be no freer pretending I don't
want you more than anything else.
What sort of thing does your father
see for us—on Bronson Beta?”
She evaded him. “Why bother about
It, Tony, when there’s ten thousand
chances to one we’ll never get there?
But we’ll try for It—won’t we?”
“I certainly will, If you’re going to.”
“Then you’ll have to submit to the
discipline.”
His arms hungered for her, and hi*
lips ached for hers, hut he turned
away.
Inside the house he found her fathai
Cole Hendron.
VO BK CONTINUE!*
scene I 1 hope to be spared for It.
Meanwhile, sell my stocks for the best
prices you can obtain, please; for my
wife and I—we have saved for a long
time, and denied ourselves too much.”
In a taxi later in the day, Tony
found the street suddenly blocked by
a delirious group of men with locked
arms, who charged out of a door, sing¬
ing—drunk, senseless.
Tony was on his way to the Newark
airport, where a certain pilot, for
whom he was to Inquire, would fly
him to the estate in the Adirondacks
which had been turned over to Cole
Hendron.
CHAPTER IV
Eve awaited Tony in a garden sur¬
rounded by trees. In the air was the
scent of blossoms, the fragrance of
the forest, the song of birds.
She was In white, with her shoul¬
ders and arms bare, her slender body
sheathed close in silk. All feminine,
she was, too feminine. Indeed, In her
feeling for the task she set for her¬
self. Would she succeed better at it
if she had garbed herself like a nun?
An airplane droned In the twilight
sky and dropped to Its cleared and
clipped landing field. Eve arose from
the bench beside the little pool. She
“As Such, We May Go on
the Space Ship.”
trembled, impatient; she circled the
pool and sat down again. Here he
came at last aDd alone, as she hoped.
“Hello, Tony!” She tried to make
it coql.
“Eve, my dear!”
“We mustn’t say even that! No—
don’t kiss me or hold me so!”
“Why? ... I know your father
said not to. It’s discipline of the
League of the Last Days. But why Is
it? Why must they ask it? And why
must you obey?”
“There now, Tony. I’ll try to ex¬
plain to you. Let’s sit here side by
side—but not your arm around me. I
want it so much, I can't have It.
That’s Why, don’t you see? We’re in
a very solemn time, Tony. I spent a
lot of today doing a queer thing—for
ipe, I got to reading the Book of
Daniel again—especially Belshazzar’s
feast. Daniel, you may remember. In¬
terpreted the writing on the wall.
‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. God
hath numbered thy kingdom and fin¬
ished 'It! Thou art weighed in the
balance and art found wanting. And
in that night was Belshazzar, the king
of the Chaldeans, slain.’
“It Is something very like that which
Is happening to us now, Tony; only
the Finger, instead of writing again
on the wall, this time has taken to
writing in the sky—over our heads.
The Finger of God, Tony, has traced
two little streaks in the sky—two ob
Jects moving toward us, where noth¬
ing ought to move; and the message of
one of them Is perfectly plain.
«‘Thou art weighed in the balance
and found wanting,’ that one says to
us on this world. ‘God hath numbered
thy kingdom and finished It.’ But
what does the other streak say?
“That is the strange one, Tony—
that is the afterthought of God —the
chance He Is sending us!
“Remember how the Old Testament
showed God to us, stern and merciless.
‘God saw that the wickedness of man
In the earth was great!’ It said. ‘And
it repented the Lord that he bad
MYSTERIOUS EAST
The fact Is that India was never
“discovered” in the ordinary sense of
Um word, it luta a history going back
thousands of years. English and
French traders settled there in ths
Seventeenth century, hut the land
was known long before that.
Indeed, we might almost say that
it was India and other eastern coun¬
tries which discovered the western
lands, including Britain! There Is a
theory that the first home of the
white races was in the East.—Lon¬
don Answers.
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