Newspaper Page Text
When
Worlds
Collide
By EDWIN BALMER
and PHILIP WYLIE
Copyright by Edwin Balmer
and Philip Wylie
S WNU Service
- r
CHAPTER VI—Continued
—9—
They climbed a slope with a sharp
turn which was blocked; and there
two men sprang at them. Tony jerked
out his pistol; but today—and though
he was on his way to his mother who
was murdered—he could not pull the
trigger on these men. He beat down
one with the butt, instead, and with
the barrel cowed the other.
He got the car clear and with Eve
drove on. Ah—here was the road
home! Home! His home, where he
had been born and where he was a
little boy. Home, the home that had
been his father’s and his grandfather’s
and before that, for four generations.
Down this road from his home, some
man named Drake had gone to fight In
the World war, the Civil war, in
1812, and to join the army of Wash¬
ington.
Tony tried not to think about his
mother yet. Eve placed her hand over
his which held the steering wheel.
“You’ll let me stay close beside you,
Tony,” she appealed.
"Yes. We’re almost there.”
Familiar landmarks bobbed up on
both sides, everywhere: a log cabin he
had built as a boy; here was the way
to the old well—the "Revolutionary
well."
“Here we are.”
The house was before them, white,
calm, confident. Tony’s heart leaped.
How he loved it—and she who had
been its spirit! How often she had
stood in that doorway awaiting him!
Some one was standing there now—
an old woman, slight, white-haired.
Tony recognized her—Mrs. Haskins,
the minister’s wife. She advanced
toward Tony, and old Hezekiah Has¬
kins took her place in the doorway.
“What happened?”
Old Haskins told Tony, as kindly as
he could:
"She was alone; she did not feel
afraid, though all the village and even
her servants had fled. The band of
men came by. She did not try to
keep them out. Knowing her—and
judging by what I found—she asked
them in and offered them food. Some
of them had been drinking; or they
were mad with the intoxication of de¬
struction. Some one shot her cleanly
—once, Tony. It is certain, Tony, she
did not suffer.”
Tony could not speak. Eve clung to
his hand. “Thank God for that, Tony !”
she whispered.
Briefly Tony unclasped his hand
from Eve's and met the old minister’s
quivering grasp. He bent and kissed
Mrs. Haskins’ gray cheek.
“Thank you. Thank you both,” he
whispered. “You shouldn’t have stayed
Two Men Sprang at Them. Tony
Jerked Out His Pistol. He Beat
Down One With the Butt, and
With the Barrel Cowed the Other.
here; you shouldn't have waited for
me. But you did.’’
• • • * • • •
Old Hezekiah and his wife, and Or¬
son the sexton, and Tony Drake and
Eve Hendron stood on the hilltop
where the men of the Drake blood and
the women wno reproduced them in all
generations of memory lay buried. A
closed box lay waiting Its lowering
into the ground.
"Hear my prayer, 0 Lord; and with
thine ears consider my calling. .
. .
ior I am a stranger with thee, and a
•ojourner as all my fathers were.
“Oh, spare me a little, that I may
recover my strength before I go hence,
and be no more seen."
Old Hezekiah Haskins held the book
before him, but he did not read. A
thousand times in his fifty years of the
ministry he had repeated those words.
"Thou turnest man to destruction;
again thou sayest, Come again, ye
children of men.”
Men and children of men on Bron-
•on Beta, too. Man millions and thou¬
sand* of millions of years in the mak-
lng. Azoic time—proterozolc time, hun¬
dreds of millions of years, while life
slowly developed In the seas. Hundreds
of millions more, while it emerged
from the seas; a hundred million
more, while reptiles ruled the land,
the sky and water. Then they were
swept away; mammals came; and man
—a thousand million years of birth
and death and birth again before even
the first brick could be laid in the
oldest city on Bronson Beta, which
men on earth had seen last night with
their telescopes.
‘‘For a thousand years in thy sight
are but as yesterday; seeing that is
past as a watch in the night.”
“For when thou art angry, all our
days are gone; we bring our years to
an «>nd like a tale that is told."
The sexton and old Hezekiah alone
could not lift the box to lower it. Tony
had to help them with it. He did;
and his mother lay beside her hus
band.
Tonight, when the huge Bronson Al¬
pha and Bronson Beta with its visible
cities of its own dead were on this
side of the world again, the tide
might rise over tills hill. What mat¬
ter? His mother lay where she would
have chosen. A short time now, and
all this world would end.
“I’ll take you away," Tony was say¬
ing to the old minister and his wife
and the older sexton. “We’re flying
west tonight to the central plateau.
We’ll manage somehow to take you
with us.”
“Not me,” said the old sexton. “Do
not take me from the will of the
Lord 1”
Nor would the minister and his wife
be moved. They would journey to¬
day, when the water receded, into the
higher hills; but that was all they
would do.
• • • • • • •
The airplane settled to earth on the
high ground between Lake Michigan
and Lake Superior, just as the Bron¬
son Bodies, appallingly large, rose over
the eastern horizon. Nearly a thou¬
sand people came from the great can¬
tonment to greet Tony and Hen-
dron’s daughter. The scientist had
given up his New Mexico venture en¬
tirely, and brought his congregation
of human beings all to his Michigan
retreat.
Greetings, however, were not fully
made until the Bronson Bodies had
been observed. Beta now exceeded
the moon, and it shone with a pearly
luster and a brilliance which the moon
had never possessed. Around it was
nn aureole of soft radiance where its
atmosphere, thawed by the warmth
of the sun it so rapidly approached,
had completely resumed its gaseous
state.
But Bronson Beta did not compare
with the spectacle of Alpha. Alpha
was gigantic—bigger than the sun, and
seemingly almost as bright, for the
clouds which streamed up from every
part of its surface threw back the
sun’s light, dazzling, white and hard.
There was no night. Neither Eve nor
Tony had seen the camp in Its comple¬
tion; and when wonderment over the
ascending bodies gave way to uneasy
familiarity, Eliot James took them on
n tour of inspection.
Hendron had prepared admirably
for the days which he had known
would lie ahead of his hand-picked
community. There were two prodigi¬
ous dining halls, two buildings not
unlike apartment houses in which men
and women were domiciled. In addi¬
tion there was a building resembling a
hangar set on end, which towered
above the surrounding forests more
than a hundred feet. At its side was
the landing field, space for the shelter¬
ing of the planes, and opposite the
landing field a long row of shops
which terminated In an iron works.
It was to the machine shops and
foundry that Eliot James last took his
companions.
“The crew here,” he said to Eve,
“has already finished part of the con¬
struction of the Ark which your father
is planning. If we wanted to, we could
build a battleship here; in the labora¬
tories anything that has been done
could be repeated; and a great many
things have been accomplished that
have never been done before. By to¬
morrow night I presume that the en¬
tire New York equipment will have
been reinstalled here.”
Tony whistled. "It’s amazing. Genius,
sheer genius! How about food?”
Eliot James smiled. “There Is
enough food for the entire congrega¬
tion as long as we will need it.”
“Now show us the ‘Ark.’ ”
Eve’s father came out from the han¬
gar to act as their guide.
From the hysterical white glare of
the Bronson Bodies Eve and Tony were
taken into a mighty chamber which
rose seemingly to the sky itself, where
the brilliance was even greater. A
hundred things inside that chamber
might have attracted their attention—
its flood-lighting system, or the tre¬
mendous bracing of Its metal walls;
but their eyes were only for the ob¬
ject in its center. The Ark on that
late July evening—the focal point, ths
dream and hope of all those whom
Hendron had gathered together—stood
upright on a gigantic concrete block in
a cradle of steel beams. Its length
was one hundred and thirty-five feet.
It was sixty-two feet in diameter, and
DADE COUNTY TIMES: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY" 21, 1935
its shape was cylindrical. Stream¬
lining was unnecessary for travel in
the outer reaches of space, where
there was no air to set up resistance.
The metal which composed it was a
special alloy eighteen inches In thick¬
ness, electroplated on the outside with
au alloy which shone like chromium.
After Tony had looked at it for a
long time, he said, “It is by far the
most spectacular object mankind has
ever achieved."
Hendron glanced at him and con¬
tinued his exposition. “A second
shell, much smaller, goes Inside; and
between the inner shell and its outer
guard are several layers of insulation
material. Inside the shell will be en¬
gines which generate the current,
which in turn releases the blast of
atomic energy, store-chambers for
everything to be carried, the mechan¬
isms of control, the aeration plant,
the heating units and the quarters for
passengers.”
Tony tore his eyes from the sight.
“How many will she carry?” he asked
quietly
Hendron hesitated; then he said,
“For a trip of the duration 1 contem¬
plate, she would be able to take about
one hundred people.”
Tony’s voice was still quieter. “Then
The Ark—the Focal Point, the Dream and Hope of All Those Whom
Hendron Had Gathered Together—Stood Upright on a Gigantic Con¬
crete Block in a Cradle of Steel Beams.
races and inundated the land to the
very foot of the Appalachians. Its
westward rush destroyed every build¬
ing, every hovel, every skyscraper,
every city, from Bangor In Maine to
Key West in Florida. The tide looped
into the Gulf of Mexico, roiled up the
Mississippi valley.
It roared around South America,
turning the Amazon basin into a vas*
Inland sea which stretched from what
had been the east coast to the Andes
mountains on the west coast. The
speed of this tide was beyond calcu¬
lation.
Every river became a channel for it.
It spilled over Asia. It Inundated the
great plein of China. It descended
from the Arctic regions and removed
much of France, England and Ger¬
many, all of Holland and the great
Soviet empire, from the list of nations.
Arctic water hundreds of feet deep
flowed into the Caspian sea and hurled
the last of its august inertia upon the
Caucasus.
Western Asia and Arabia, southern
India, Africa and much of Australia
remained dry land.
More than half the population of
the world died In the tides that rose
arid subsided during the proximity of
the Bronson Bodies. But those who-
by design or through accident found
themselves on land that remained dry
were not necessarily spared.
The earthquake which Tony had felt
in Michigan was the first of a series of
shocks which increased steadily In
violence for the next forty-eight hours,
and which never afterward wholly
ceased. Hendron had chosen his spot
well, for it was one of the relatively
few portions of the undeluged world
which was not reduced to an unten¬
able wasteland of smoking rock and
creeping lava.
As hour by hour the earth presented
new surfaces to the awful gravita¬
tional pull of the Bronson Bodies, a
series of stupendous cataclysms took
place. Underneath the brittle slag
which man considers both solid and
enduring lie thousands of miles of
dense compressed molten material.
The earth’s crust does not hold back
that material. It is kept In place only
by a delicate adjustment of gravity;
and the Interference of the Bronson
Bodies distorted that balance. The
earth burst open like a ripe grape I
From a geological standpoint the tide*
which swept over were a phenomenon
of but trifling magnitude.
TO BE CONTINUED.
The Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian trail, as conceived
by its proponents, ia a footpath for
hikers in the Appalachian moun¬
tains extending from Maine to Flor¬
ida, a distance of some 2,050 miles.
The trail shuns automobile road*
and lowlands, the purpose being to
provide access to the mountains and
wild country of the Eastern highland*
for tramping, camping and outdoor
recreation. Its route is the Crestline
of the Appalachian system. With the
exception of national and state parks
and national forests traversed, th*
trail Is on privately owned land with
the consent of owner*.
you have nine hundred Idealists in
your camp here.”
The older man smiled. “Unless I am
greatly mistaken, I nave a thousand.”
“They all know about the ship?”
“Something about it. Nearly half of
them have been working on it, or on
apparatus connected with it.”
“You pay no wages?”
“I’ve offered wages. In most cases
they’ve been refused. I have more
than three million dollars in gold avail¬
able here for expenses encountered in
dealing with people who still wish
money for their time or materials."
“1 see. How long a trip do you con¬
template?”
Hendron took the young man’s
breath. “Ninety hours. That is, pro¬
vided,"—and his voice began to
shake—“provided we can find proper
materials with which to line our
blast tubes. Otherwise we wouldn’t be
able to propel this thing for more
than a few minutes. I—"
Eve looked at her father. “Dad,
you’ve got to go to bed. And don’t
worry so. We’ll find the alloy all
right. We’ve done everything else.”
Hendron nodded; and Tony, looking
at him, realized for the first time how-
much the scientist had aged recently.
Tony escorted Eve to the women's
dormitory. Eve bade him good night,
then went inside. Tony walked with
slow strides to the top of a neigh¬
boring hill. Hendron’s village looked
on the northern side like a uni¬
versity campus, and on the southern
side like the heart of a manufacturi ig
district. All around it stretched the
Michigan wilderness. The ground had
been chosen partly because of the age
and firmness of its geological base,
and partly because of its isolation.
He sat down on a large stone. The
hot night wind blew with increasing
violence, and the double shadows, one
sharp and one faint, which were cast
by all things in the light of the Bron¬
son Bodies, were abruptly obliterated
by the passage of a dark cloud.
Tony's mind ran unevenly and ir¬
resolutely. “All these people,” he
thought, “these brilliant, temperamental
men and women, have subsided and
made themselves like soldiers In Hen¬
dron’s service—amazing man—Only a
hundred people—”
Fears assailed him: “Suppose they
don’t complete the Ark successfully,
and she never leaves the ground? Then
all these people would have given their
lives for nothing. Suppose it leaves the
earth and fails—falls back for hun¬
dreds of miles, gaining speed all the
way, so that when it hit the atmos¬
THE STORY FROM THE BEGINNING
Ransdell arrives at New York from South Africa, bearing a case
photographic plates to Dr. Cole Hendron. Tony Drake calls at the
i/.nartment introduces Ransdell arrives Ransdell. and Newspapers Eve Hendron, publish with a whom statement Tony by Is
n saving love ProfLsor Tony to discovered two planets, which
that Bronson has
brought under the attraction of the earth’s sun. The result of the
n een rolHsfon BronTon must be the end Bronson of the world. Beta. Bronson The approaching Beta will bodies pass, are but
d 1 to ss Alpha and devise of transferring
, her hit the earth and demolish It. To means
B in what is occupying the minds of the members of the League
?", ‘ plans to build * “Space Ship." with the idea of
Hendron suitable men and women to build
cantonment'in Beta Tony rounds up
f P tii * northern will withstand Michigan. the Hendron heat and has pressure not been of able atomic to
To or an alloy which Tide- rush through the streets
be used in propelling the Space Ship.
phere It would turn red-hot and bur*
itself up Just like a meteor."
Tony thought of the tides that would
rise that night and on following
nights; and faintly, like the palpita¬
tion of a steamer’s deck, the earth
shook beneath his feet as if In answer
to his meditation. And Tony real¬
ized that the heart of the earth was
straining toward its celestial com¬
panions.
• • • • • • •
On the night of the twenty-fifth,
tides unprecedented in the world’s his¬
tory swept every seacoast. There were
earthquakes of varying magnitude all
over tlie world. In the day that fol¬
lowed, volcanoes opened up, and
islands sank beneath the sen; and on
the night of the twenty-sixth the greater
of the Bronson Bodies came within its
minimum distance from the earth on
this their first approach.
No complete record was ever made
of the devastation. Eliot James, who
made some tabulation of it in the suc¬
ceeding months, could never believe
all that he saw and heard, but it must
have been true.
The eastern coast of the United
States sustained a tidal wave seven
hundred and fifty feet in height, which
came in from the sea in relentless ter¬
TRUE GHOST
STORIES !
;
■ ■
By Famous People
Copyright by Public Ledger, Ino.
WNU Service.
By ARCH SELWYN
Theatrical Producer.
J* ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN always
** fascinated me, although he was
a menace to organized society. I had
known hint as a boy. He came from
upright people, who felt disgraced
when he ran away from home, to fol¬
low the career of a gambler. I always
followed news of his career," related
Arch Selwyn, the theatrical producer.
“Rothstein had a weird and definite
premonition of fate that was going
to overtake his later career, and he
didn’t run away from it."
In the fading twilight of a day,
wherein Mr. Selwyn had watched the
rehearsal of his new play, "The Devil
Basses," and wherein later he would
watch its premiere, he had turned from
talk of the theater to talk of colorful
personalities in the arena of dally life
who live dangerously, and of the
dangers, seen and unseen, which pur¬
sue them.
“I once told Rothstein," he continued,
“that I would like to see a certain
gambling house where, It was reputed
the leaders of gangdom gambled with
one another, and where fabulous sums
were exchanged, in cash.”
Mr. Selwyn is a good theatrical pro¬
ducer and the sight of $50,000 in cash
is a good show, even to a veteran the¬
ater man, he admitted.
“Rothstein promised to take me
to a private house in New York city
to watch the gambling. One night
he called me for dinner. A Mr. B.
joined us and Rothstein exacted from
us the promise that neither of us would
gamble. “This gang,” lie said, “has
a code and a language all its own, and
you fellows can’t play with it.”
“Rothstein started to throw the dice.
The first bet was $25,000.
“Mr. B„ an indefatigable gambler,
who made large sums, but who was
in the habit of letting them slip by,
was soon gambling, despite Itothstein’s
warning. Rothstein scolded him, but
he started to play again, and won $1,-
500. He wanted to get away from the
place. There were too many ‘bruisers,’
too many desperate-looking characters
staring at his winnings for him to feel
easy. Rothstein commanded him to
wait for him, but he refused. Roth¬
stein told him to await him at Dinty
Moore’s.
"In the meantime, Rothstein was
losing. In the end he lost $300,000 to
three men. Usually these men in gang¬
dom pay their gambling debts at once,
in cash. This time, Rothstein could
not pay In cash. However, lie prom¬
ised to pay soon.
“In fifteen minutes, after B.’s de¬
parture, Rothstein called me from the
scene which had fascinated me like
a bizarre foreign spectacle. He rushed
me to Dinty Moore’s.
“There, in a panic, in the cold per¬
spiration of fear was B. He col¬
lapsed before us.
“ ‘You can’t Imagine what happened
to me,’ he whispered. ‘When I came
down the steps, three fellows stuck
their guns in me and ordered, “Hand
over the $1,500.” I never was so
frightened.’
“ ‘Didn't I tell you to wait for me?’
said Rothstein.
“‘Yes, but,’ began B.
“‘You’ll learn not to ga. Ale with
guys like those,’ Rothstein admon¬
ished. Then, seeing that B. was trem¬
bling, he said. ‘Give back the money,’
to the fellows in the corner whom he
had planted on the stairway to give B.
a scare.
“The frightening experience was not
the end of a sequence of affairs re¬
volving about that night’s losses, as
I was soon to learn. I had intended
to go sight-seeing, but when one sight¬
sees in gangdom it is not the history
of the event but the future ramifica¬
tions that have significance for anyone
who goes near.
“Two months later I was in the
Warwick hotel, where it happened
Rothstein had an apartment. He saw
me In the lobby and said he wanted
to talk to me. ‘It’s about those fel¬
lows I lost that money to. They sure
have been giving me a ride. I can’t
pay now. I will later, but I must stall
them off.’
“We went upstairs. The phone rang.
Rothstein’s premonition now haunted
him. After answering it, Rothstein
said, ‘It’s those very boys calling me.
They want me to come over to the
hotel.’
“‘Why do you go?’ I asked.
“ ‘Because if I don’t they will thins
I am a coward trying to run away.
I know what it means, I must go.’
“That night Rothstein was fatally
shot. He had several chances to tell
who shot him. He refused.
“There is nothing more ghostly or
macabre than thus coming face to face
with a consummated premonition of
violent death.”
Foundation of Life Insurance
The real foundation of modern lire
and of scientific annuities
the publication in 1771 by Rich¬
Price of his Northampton Table
Mortality. In recent years this sys¬
of insurance has been vastly ex¬
because it enables even rela¬
poor men to provide an income
their dependents after death, or
in old age.
WORLD’S WAR RECORD
World history tells us that during
the last 3,421 years, war has been
going on continuously on some part
of the globe except for 270 years.
During tin's period, 8,000 peace
treaties have been w T ritten and signed
that lasted an average of two years
each. During the same period. 25
combinations of nations of one kind
or another have been formed and
continued for a time, comparable to
the.present League of Nations.—Cap¬
per’s Weekly.
Appetite gone?
Closing
weight
F nervous
F pale
V tired
then don't gamble with your body
A simple thing, perhaps... loss yet of a
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Unless your case is exceptional, you
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Makes you
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Their Relationship
Old Lady Backbite is the devil’s
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inherited
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Don’t delay! For the quicker you
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