Newspaper Page Text
By Edwin Balmer
and Philip Wylie
Copyright, 1934, by
Edwin Balmer* Philip Wylie
WNU Service.
SYNOPSIS
.,2! ,be leadership of Cole Hendron,
American scientist, over 300 per-
escape > n tw0 Space Ships j ust be '
*° cosmic collision wiped out the
Ifrth r , a land Bronson Beta. A
and on
straight metal roadway is dis-
f,°' 'nvered indicating Beta that had whoever swift mov- once
J a on Bronson
vehicles. Thousands of giant mete-
hurtle through the sky, but none
*. “rs Hendron's colonists is hurt. The
are fragments of the destroyed
JSLnant, V h s'moon. Tony Professor Drake, Higgins Hendron's dis¬
and
tover a river bottom green with vege¬
tation.
CHAPTER II—Continued
— 4 —
Was It significant that Bates and
Jeremiah Post, who had dug from the
soli the wreck of the Other People's
vehicle, were the first affected? And
Jialtby soon afterward was sick.
Twenty-six persons together fell ill;
»ntl three died—Bates, and Wardlow, a
chemist, and one of the girls who had
served as a nurse to the sick—Lucy
Grant. The rest made complete re¬
coveries; no one else was later af¬
fected; the strange plague passed from
the camp.
But of the hundred and three emi¬
grants from earth—perhaps the sole
survivors of humanity in all creation
—three were dead. And Tony Drake
ordered the breaking of the strange
■ sol) of Bronson Beta for the first
burials of Earth People. Three new
Interments to add to the uncountable
graves of the Other People who were
yet to be discovered!
Hendron. who himself had not fallen
sick, was by far the most disturbed
by these deaths that had come to the
camp; thereafter he doubled his re¬
strictions.
It was Higgins, the botanist, who at
| length openly defied the leader.
Higgins took four of the younger
linen—and under other circumstances
iyony unquestionably would have
i Joined them—and went off exploring.
I At that time Hendron was endeavoring
to make a new set of gears, and a
chassis and a body, for a second
itomlc-engine vehicle, using metal
from the wall of the Ark; and al¬
though he engaged more than twenty
people in the operation, it was progres
ling very slowly. Moreover they had
Just passed through another three
days of heavy rain, and while it was
good for the gardens, nevertheless the
people who lived in tents were ex¬
tremely miserable. They were study¬
ing the possibility of having to live
all together in one or two of the round
sections of the Ark during the coming
winter, as it would be impossible to
erect metal bouses by that time; and
every one was dejected over the idea
of passing nearly two earth years
sleeping on the padded floor of a cham¬
ber in the Ark in one great communal
group.
Late on the afternoon of the fourth
day the exploring party returned,
|kdnly in triumphant excitement,
j Higgins reported for them all when
they halted, surrounded by their
friends:
" e covered about seventy-five
titles. ( Me
saw a great desert. We
* Pnf int0 8 valley where mighty
a
angle of fern trees is beginning to
r *e toward the heavens. I have seen
excavations in an old pit where the
ossiig of animals that were extinct
llr ing the civilized period on this
pa n* were b e j ng (j U g out And we
eri(1|| iintered, not ten miles from here,
I J*. ■ 0 “ the "Hi . ° ttler very largely People’s road, something
grnat difficulties.” relieve one of our
" iltl ttiat he unstrapped his pack,
‘M it, and dumped out at Hen-
1,1 s feet a dozen objects which
dron dropped upon
T 'ey eagerly.
were wood, chips of wood.
a A " 1—soft wood. Finely grained
ii,| d wood with a coarse, straight
j r
i ’ S there much of it?" Hendron
, sk ■ h., , as he examined
the chips.
»? n °dded. ‘‘There is enough
Atan< Hng, seasoned, perfectly pre-
ip., to Supply
ber us with all the lum-
P tan use f °r generations. The
lrm Co-""- of
ttie forest that we found
Of y accords with your theory
„
It god trep* ?reat Ftnet’s forest past °f history. There
of S many varieties
of ’ tiu p e exactly resembling those
0l]p " ri(1 >’et
d er > of their general or-
dduoiiR e V seeme d to have been de-
'
faller • \ n ‘ eS laj most, y I the their leaves had
bough* on gfouad; the
»utu rD ! r V“l Ust have be en a long, last
Paraiipi " 1 ° we( * by a winter without
°o this nJ', °, D ane ° Ur f' Worid A11 and previously
froze rt ? wa ter froze; air
*t tiie erv ' n ^ *-be forest as it was
i tllat
110 thu aw ^ u * autumn when
v . l!ne through
i year* “ s i„ the millions of
m " outer , '“ ltfr s Paee until this planet
0 ur .
trees ^ examined were unlike
f,
tB( l boi-rh° n Were earth; Wootlen yet their trunks
h ; their leaves
a ^ ground. Here are a
few of the leaves. ... I am taking
the liberty of calling this one maple,
and this one oak, and this one spruce,
and this one etna."
The exiles from earth pushed close
to finger the leaves and bits of wood,
so strange and yet suggesting the
familiar. These promised them homes,
rooms of their own, chairs, tables, cup¬
boards and book shelves and writing
desks and a thousand other things
dear to their emotional memories.
Tony drew close to Eve. “We’ll be
outcasts no longer—outcasts!” he emo¬
tionally murmured. “We’ll have a
house and a wood fire again!”
“We?” whisperet Eve. “We? You
and I? We’ll be allowed to marry and
live by ourselves?”
They were near to Hendron, but he
seemed not to hear them.
They were all sitting around a fire on
that night, after those first moments
of gentleness and of affection when
they had been brought electrically back
to the happy past, when once again
their hopes had risen.
It was night, and dark; and there
was no moon. Nor would there ever
be a moon. They had been singing
softly; and one of their number—Dim¬
itri Kalov—had slipped away from the
fire and talked to Hendron, and gone
to the Ark and come back with a
piano-accordion strapped around his
shoulders. No one had seen him re¬
turn, but suddenly from out of the
darkness came a ripple of music.
The singing stopped and they lis¬
tened while Dimitri played. He played
old songs and he played some of the
music from Russia which his father
had taught him. Then, between num¬
bers when the applause died and a
hush fell over the group, as they wait¬
ed for him to begin again, there was a
sound.
It was soft and remote and yet It
transfixed every one instantly, because
it was a sound that did not belong to
any human being. It was a sound that
did not belong to their colony. A sound
foreign and yet familiar. A sound that
rose for a few Instants and then died
out to nothing, only to return more
strongly than before.
One by one ihey turned their faces
up, for the sound was in the sky. It
approached rapidly, above them, In the
dark. There was no mistaking It now.
It was the motor of an airplane. An
airplane on Bronson Beta! An airplane
w m
Nearer and Nearer It
Came . , . A Long
Finger of Light
Stabbed Across the
Sky and Began Comb¬
ing It for the Van¬
ishing Plane. A Speck
—A Flash of Wing
Surface. And the
Clouds.
piloted by other human beings, or per¬
haps—they did not dare to think about
the alternative.
Nearer and nearer It came, until
some of them could discern the splotch
of darkness against the stars. But
then the ship in the heavens seemed
to see their tire on the ground and be
alarmed by it, for it switched its course
and started back in the direction from
which it had come.
Hendron rushed toward the observa¬
tory and shouted to Von Beitz, who
was on duty at the radio, to tu-'> on a
searchlight. Von Beitz must have heard
the airplane too. for even as Hendron
shouted, a long finger of light stabbed
across the sky and began combing It
for the vanishing plane. It caught and
held upon the ship for a fraction of a
second before It plunged through a
sleazy cloud, but that second was not
long enough for anyone to tell what
manner of ship it was, or even whether
it was a ship such as might have been
made by the people of the earth. A
speck—a flash of wing surface. And
the clouds.
They sat, stricken and numb. Sure¬
ly, If there had been human beings in
that ship—surely if it had contained
ottier refugees from the destruction of
the earth—it would have circled over
their fire time and again In exultation.
But It had fled. What could that
mean? Who could be in It? What In¬
telligence could be piloting it?
The pulsations of the motor died.
The light was snapped off. The colo¬
nists shuddered.
They were not alone on Bronson
Beta.
CHAPTER III
Somebody threw a log onto the fire.
It blazed up freshly, and illuminated
the strained, immobile faces of the
emigrants from Earth. Nobody spoke.
They only looked at one another.
Out of the night, out of the dark¬
ness, out of the remote, infinitely dis
rant, impersonal Nowhere, had ''ome
that humming, throbh;^ reality. Some¬
where on Bronson Beta there were
DADE COUNTY TIMES: THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1935
omer human beings. Armntet still
more dreadful thought curdled the im¬
aginations of the people who sat
around the campfires: were those
other beings human?
Hendron walked up to the camp¬
fire and addressed his comrades. “I
think,” he said slowly, “that the
thought now engraving the Imagina¬
tions of many of you may be discard
ed. 1 mean the thought that the plane
which approached our camp was pilot¬
ed by other than human beings. We
must infer from our glimpse of that
machine in the sky, and from the
sound of its flight, that some other
party on earth was successful in com¬
pleting a ship capable of taking the
leap from Earth to Bronson Beta."
“If they were any people from
earth.” Jeremiah I’ost countered,
“why should they have approached so
near, and yet not give any sign they
had seen us?”
Cole Hendron faced this objector
calmly. He was aware that Post was
one of the younger men who believed
that he, the leader of the party on
earth, and the captain on the voyage
through space, had served his purpose.
“Have you come to believe,” he chal
lenged the metallurgist, “that any of
the people native to this planet could
have survived?"
“I believe,” retorted Post, “that we
certainly t>re not safe in excluding that
possibility from our calculations. As
you all know," he continued, addressing
the whole group now rather than
Hendron, “I have given extended study
to the vehicle of the Other People
which we have found. Not only In its
mechanical design and method of pro¬
pulsion was it utterly beyond any
vehicle developed on earth, but Its
metallurgy was in a class by itself—
compared to ours. These people had
far surpassed our achievement in the
sole fields of science from which we
yet have any sample. Is it not nat¬
ural to suppose that, likewise, they
were beyond us in other endeavors?
Particularly, perhaps, in preservation
of themselves. I will not be so absurd
as to imagine that any large number
of them could have survived the ex¬
treme ordeals of—space. But is it
utterly inconceivable that a few could?”
“In order that each of us may form
his and her own opinion of the pos¬
sibilities,” said Hendron, “I will ask
Duquesne to acquaint you with the
starry nlght«—sweTlri Wvame
brighter.
“They made their calca:ntlor«. Their
sun, with Its retinue of planets, was
approaching another star. There would
be no collision; we do not believe that
such a thing occurred. There was
merely an approach of another sun
close enough to counteract, by its own
attraction, the attraction of the orig¬
inal sun upon this planet, and upon
Bronson Alpha.
“This must have been a torturingly
prolonged process of the inhabitants
here. The approach of a star is not
like the approach of a planet. We dis¬
covered Bronson Alpha and Bronson
Beta only a few months before they
were upon us; the Beings here must
have known for generations, for cen¬
turies, the approach of the stranger
star!
"Knowing It, for hundreds of years,
could any of the inhabitants here have
schemed a way of saving themselves?
That seems to be the question now be¬
fore us.
"I cannot say that they could not.
1 can only say that we could not have
devised anything adequate to meet
their situation. Yet—they might have.
They knew more than we: they had
much more time, but tboir problem
was terrific—the problem of surviving
through nearly absolute cold and dark¬
ness, n drift through space, of a mil
lion or millions of years. If any of
you believe that problem could have
been met by the Beings here, he has ns
much right to his opinion ns I have to
mine.”
“Which Is?” Jeremiah Post demand¬
ed.
“That the people here tried to solve
that problem," replied Duquesne with¬
out evasion, “and failed; but that they
made a magnificent attempt. When we
find them, we will find—I hope and
believe—the method of their tremen¬
dous attempt.”
Shirley Cotton stood up. “What, M.
Duquesne,” she Inquired, “would be
the attitude of the Beings If they sur¬
vived and found us here?”
“Their attitude, after awaking from
a million years’ sleep, would combine,
among other elements, surprise and
caution, I should suggest. But, engag¬
ing as such speculations may be, our
position demands that we be practical.
We must assume that aircraft we saw
in these skies came from earth. If
there are other pe pie from our world
upon Bronson Beta, we prefer to be
friends with them. That attitude, be¬
sides being rational, is our natural in¬
clination. However,”—he shrugged his
huge shoulders eloquently,—“it does
not therefore follow that another party
of emigrants from earth would want
to be friendly to us. It Is possible that,
finding themselves here, they p-efer
private possession of this planet.”
Eve Hendron, sitting beside Tony,
leaned toward him and whispered: “I
can imagine that. Can’t you?”
Tony nodded. “That’s what I’ve been
doing. I was In Russia during the
days on earth,” he said. “Suppose that
a Russian party made the hop. Since
we did, why not? They worked along
lines of their own, but they had some
of the world’s best scientists. If they
made It, you may be sure they packed
their ship with first-class Communists
—the most vigor or and the most fa¬
natic. When they found themselves
here, what would they feel most?”
“I know,” Eve nodded. “They’d feel
that they had a world to themselves,
where they could work out the millen¬
nium according to their own ideals.”
“And,” Tony finished for her, “that
they must beat down, at the very'out¬
set, possible interference.”
They were whispering only to each
other; but many heads bent near to
listen; and Hendron, seeing that Tony
caught his attention, called to him:
“You have a suggestion?”
“Two,” said Tony, rising to his feet.
“I suggest, Cole, that we organize at
once an adequate exploring expedition ;
and at the same time, prepare de¬
fenses.”
“Will you lead the exploring party—
and choose its members?” Hendreo
asked Tony.
“Gladly."
“I,” said Hendron, “will be responsl
ble for the defenses here.”
The people about Tony pressed cloa
er. “Take me! . . . Mel . . . Tony, i
want to go! Take me!”
Eve Hendron reached for Tony’s arm
and clung to him as he moved out of
the group gathered about him.
“Take me too, Tony.”
“Not you.”
“Why not?”
“I wouldn’t on earth; why would Q
here? Besides, I want to come back
to you. I want to feel, when I’m away,
I’m risking whatever we happen to risk,
for you. when You see, I’m 1 with love you. It’B front like j
on earth, you away i j
the others. See the stars up there,
There’s Cepheus and the Dragon; and ; |
Vega and the Swan, as we’ve always
seen them. And the earth hard and ]
cold at our feet; so comfortably solid I
and substantial, this '>arth, which came !
to us torn sometime, from some for distant and star for j
a couch, you me!”
Night deepened. The company of j
emigrants from the earth heaped high
er the fire with wood from the forest
which had leafed on this land of Bron¬
son Beta a million years ago. Some of
the company—men as well as women—
shivered with a chill not instilled It
their veins by the sharpness of nigh?
TO BE CONTINUED.
Rumble in Hot-Water Lines
Rumtiling in hot-water lines, espe J
dally wheD the hot water supply tank
Is heated by a coll In the heater’s fire
box, is caused by steam, formed In th«
coll, forcing its way through the water
In the coil as it rises to the tank. Coii
connections should slope upward to al
low the steam easy escape. R tmbllni
also occurs when a faucet if
with the water boiling.
physical experience of this planet as
we now perceive it.”
The French scientist readily arose,
and loomed larger than ever In the
flickering flare of the fire:
“My friends, It is completely plain
to all of us that once this world,
which has given us refuge, was at¬
tached to some distant sun which we,
on the world, saw as a star.
“That star might have been a sun
of the same order as our sun, which
this world has now found. If such
were the case, it seems likely that Bron¬
son Beta circled its original sun at
some distance similar to our distance
from our sun; for the climatic condi¬
tions here seem in the past to have
been similar, at least, to the conditions
on earth.
“However, whatever the original sun
for this planet was, this world must
have been satisfactorily situated with
regard to it for millions and hundreds
of millions of years.
“Orderly evolution must have pro¬
ceeded for an immense period to pro¬
duce, for instance, that log—the ma¬
terial which we burn before us to
give us, tonight, light and heat; and to
produce the people who made the ve¬
hicle which my colleague Jeremiah
I’ost so admirably has analyzed.
"Beings of a high order of intelligence
dwelt here. We have evidence that In
science they had progressed beyond
us—unfortunately for themselves, poor
fellows! Their science must have
showed them their dooms so plain and
for a frightfully long period—a doom
from which there scarcely could have
been, even for the most favored few.
any means of escape. Theirs was a
fate far more terrible than was ours—
a fate Incomparably more frightful
than mere complete catastrophe.
"Attend I There they were, in some
other part of the heavens, circling, at
some satisfactory distance, their sun!
For millions and millions of years this
world upon which we now stand went
its orderly way. Then its astronomers
noticed that a star was approaching.
A star—a moe po'nt of light on lta
System in Reducing Weight
Can Never Be Considered an Easy Matter, and to “Get
Anywhere M a Definite Program Must Be Mapped
Out and Adhered To Faithfully.
Although styles change and the
standard for figures with them—at
the moment an extra pound or
two is sponsored by Paris—I find
that there Is still an Interest in
weight reduction. Unfortunately,
pounds seem to be much harder to
lose than they are to gain, especially
if overweight has existed a number
of years.
It is still a mystery why some peo¬
ple gain weight on a comparatively
low diet, while others seem to he un¬
able to put on even a few extra
pounds. There is probably some
glandular reason, which, however, is
difficult to locate. Under a doctor’s
supervision, it is safe to experiment
with certain glandular preparations,
which, however, are dangerous to
take except under his direction. The
specialists on overweight state that
in genera] overweight is a question
of too many calories. They cite case
after case where persons, enormous¬
ly overweight, have been reduced to
somewhere near normal by reducing
food to a minimum. They also state
that this is very difficult to accom¬
plish unless the person is in a hos¬
pital where every bit of food can he
supervised. They are speaking, of
course, of really obese persons, who
may be fifty to two hundred pounds
overweight.
I find that most of the persons
who wish to reduce are little over
average weight for height and age.
It has been found, however, that av¬
erage weight is not the best criterion.
If we choose for our standard the
average weight for thirty, we will
have a good check on our individual
weight. This is only a check, be¬
cause bones differ in size and shape.
I have known a number of persons
who wear the same size clothes and
.vet who differ ten to fifteen pounds
in weight. Perhaps our ideal should
he size instead of weight.
Any reducing diet should contain
a fairly large amount of protein,
which we get in the form of meat,
fish, eggs and milk. It should con¬
tain plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Milk should never he entirely omit¬
ted, as it is difficult to find calcium
from any other sources; at least one
cup of milk a day should be a rule
for every one. The things which we
may omit without harm are fats,
bread, cereals and sweets, which
provide us with calories and little
else that is necessary for a main¬
tenance diet. The most Important
thing in a reducing program, it seems
to me. is to make out your program
for a week at a time and stick to it.
This Is the hardest part.
Mineral Mayonnaise.
Vi teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
Cayenne
% teaspoon sugar
1 egg yolk
Demon juice
Vinegar
1 cup mineral oil
Mix the dry ingredients and add
the yolk of egg. Mix well and add
one-half teaspoon of vinegar. Add
the oil gradually, drop by drop at
first, then more quickly, heating
with an egg heater. As the mixture
thickens thin with lemon juice or
vinegar and continue adding oil.
Vegetable Jelly Salad.
2 tablespoons gelatin
% cup cold water
% cup vinegar
2 cups boiling water
lti teaspoons salt
1 chopped onion
Vi cup sugar
Vs cup diced celery
2 tablespoons chopped pinaientoe*
2 tablespoons chopped olives
'4 cup shredded cabbage
Soak the gelatin in the cold water
and the vinegar. Add the boiling
water, sugar and salt, and stir until
the sugar Is dissolved. Stand In cold
water, and when mixture begins to
thicken pour into a cold mold in al¬
ternate layers with the vegetables.
Chill and when ready to serve dip
the mold into hot water for a mo- |
ment to loosen the Jelly. Serve on
a bed of lettuce.
Coffee Jelly.
2 tablespoons granulated gelatin
Vi cup cold water
3 Vi cups hot strong coffee
Vt cup sugar
Soak gelatin in cold water, adcr
fresh hot coffee and the sugar. Stir
until dissolved and pour into molds
to set.
©, Beil Syndicate.—WNTJ Service.
An Odd Revenge
Feople living in the American
town of Danville have to make a
Journey of three miles to the nearest
railway station—ns punishment be¬
cause a local citizen once made &
rude remark!
Sixty odd years ago, when plans
were being made for the railway to
he brought to Danville, the president
of the railway company went to
stay at a hotel in the town. He was
allotted an attic room, and when he
protested the reception clerk, who
had not recognized him, said testily:
"That room is good enough for the
likes of you.”
The infuriated railway magnate
thereupon picked up a pen, and
wrote across the hotel register:
“Surveyors! Lay the line just far
enough from Danville so that Its
citizens can barely hear the whis¬
tles blow.”
Advice to Girl*
Some girls who set out to be agree¬
able score a victory over those who
spend hours trying to look pretty.
Many a Friend Recommends
BLACK-DRAUGHT
People who have taken Black-
Draught naturally are enthusiastic
about it because of the refreshing
relief it has brought them. No won¬
der they urge others to try it! . . .
Mrs. Joe G. Roberts, of Portersville,
Ala., writes: “A friend recommended
Black-Draught to me a long time
ago, and it has proved its worth to me.
I Black-Draught taking is good for constipation.
find that Black-Draught prevent*
the bilious headaches which I used to
have.” . . . A purely vegetable medicine
for relief of
CONSTIPATION, BILIOUSNESS
Rid Yourself of
Kidney Poisons
fNO you frequent suffer burning, backache, scanty or
too urination;
headache, dizziness, swollen feet and
ankles? Are you tired, nervous—feel
all unstrung and don’t know what is
wrong?
Then give some thought to your
kidneys. Be sure they function proper¬
ly, for functional kidney disorder per¬
mits excess waste to stay in the blood,
and to poison and upset the whole
system.
Use Doan's Pills. Doan's are for the
kidneys only. They are recommended
the world over. You can get the ger^
uine, time-tested Doan's at any drug
store.
DOANS PILLS
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