CHAPTER I
THE EARTH TREMBLES
I
THE world, our little planet Tellus, which is continually passing through the icy blackness of space with a motion surpassing the understanding even of the men, her inhabitants, who make a study of such things, had followed her orbit around the sun to a point where the rays of the hot orb beat strongly against her southern parts. Upon her axis she had revolved until the light lay upon the continent of South America, that triangular land which shapes off sharply toward the southern pole.
The summer season there was near its height; the shadowy clouds of vapor, bearing rain, swathed the layered air. Above the ocean on the eastern side moved the troubled winds, sweeping aside from time to time the veils of mist which hid the shifting surface of the deep, exposing to the brightness of the sun the leaping waves, the sea-green troughs, the ever moving bosom of the ocean. In the sea there on the eastern side of the continent, seventy-five miles or so off the coast, a new island was growing, an island of such shape and size and of such a curious formation that the eye of an extraterrestrial observer, privileged to look down upon it through the flying clouds, would surely have been arrested by the sight.
It was curious, the process of the island’s growth. It was neither sudden, like a volcanic isle thrust noisily upward from the ocean’s bed, nor slow like the growth of a coral reef. Neither was it spasmodic; rather, the island grew in the sea in a series of waves or rhythms, mechanically. In its early state the whole perimeter had been enlarged at regular intervals until it measured nearly a mile across. Thereafter the growth became slower, but continued by another and even more peculiar method. An accretion appeared abruptly at one side. Presently another appeared beside it, and a third. In this fashion the growth went around and around, and the island broadened outward with each new ring of earth.
There were other peculiarities in connection with this strange new growth. At the center of the island there appeared a gleaming metallic structure which, viewed from above, might have been the top of a huge mushroom of steel, more than half a mile across . a structure of proportion and beauty and strength, containing neither rivet nor visible joint. There seemed to be some connection between this gigantic metal cap and the growth of the island. At every addition to the visible land a great puff of vapor, perhaps steam, shot out from beneath the hood in all directions, accompanied by an explosive swish. At the edge of the cap appeared a rotating metal prong or beak which moved about its outer edge like a finger, pointing always toward the region where the island’s growth was taking place as if directing or controlling the work.
If there were any men on the island, they were not in sight, and indeed it seemed unlikely that any animals of ordinary flesh and blood could be in a spot where such violent and mysterious forces were at work. Yet had there really been an observer hovering in the moist, warm air over the growing isle, he would surely have felt, after a time, that what was happening there was directed by an intelligence more methodical and exact than nature, and more certain of the ultimate plan.
II
In New York, still the giant city of the Western Hemisphere, winter was well under way. The southern sun, pouring its warmth for the time being on other parts, could scarcely penetrate with its feeble, slanting rays the haze of fog and smoke which overhung the islands and the bay. The boats that plied the rivers and the Sound moved in a cloud and gloom partly of their own making through winds that threatened snow and ice, while holiday throngs, responding to an ancient custom, crowded the paved streets between the canyon walls of high Manhattan, buying gifts for the coming season of ceremony and dedication.
The weather had fortunately been moderate. During the late summer and fall the inhabitants of the city had formed the habit of staying as much as possible out of doors. a habit they had continued on into the colder months, since perforce the condition which had brought it into being had not diminished, but rather had increased. It seemed that the world had suddenly been taken with a sort of terrestrial ague; it trembled in every part. Much apprehension was felt for New York’s tall buildings. monuments to industry and works of art on an island of never-moving rock, but traps and obelisks of death upon a land of tremors and eruptions. The tremblings were slight, but they were of an extremely unusual nature and of such continuance that the surprise and alarm of the seismologists had been transmitted to other scientists and finally to even the people in the streets. Upon the latter, and even upon those who should have been less easily moved by phenomena unseen and unheard and only vaguely imagined, the knowledge that the earth was shaking internally from pole to pole inspired an unreasoning terror, and every one, in cities and out, was vaguely afraid.
Business suffered as a result. The theaters were almost deserted; the larger stores saw patronage fall off. Markets which controlled the commodities of the world and the economic system which in the delicate balance weighed both toil and gold, playing one against the other, both suffered. Uneasiness spread among the traders; they had but a wavering faith now in the stability of anything. How could industry and the government be considered permanent when the very world, which had performed its revolutions undisturbed through countless centuries, had begun to break and crumble up, to shake and jerk?.
Sometimes men in the streets thought they felt through sensitive soles this regular vibration of the earth. In tall buildings the windows occasionally jibbered briefly in their frames. Scientists everywhere gave out warnings. Slowly, like the spread of ink through clear waters, the terror moved outward from the laboratories to the crowds and from the centers of population to the small towns and quiet country places, and everywhere men were afraid for the future of the earth.
To explain the phenomena there were many theories. Astronomers searched the heavens for planets, comets, or other bodies which might be exerting a malignant influence upon the earth. Physicists asserted that a new force, perhaps allied to electricity, was moving in the centrosphere; they sought in various ways to tap and measure it.1 Geologists drew elaborate charts to show how obscure changes in the deeper soils, brought about by chemical, physical, or other forces, would produce results of a vibrant kind upon the lithosphere.2
Unfortunately, none of these theories proved fruitful though many books were written about them, both technical and popular, which were widely and eagerly read. Summing up the ideas then current, in his weighty volume entitled The Trembling Earth, Andrew Storch, the physicist, concluded as had many another person in that day, that “whatever the cause of these vibrations, it is clear that nothing can be done by human agency to check or avert the doom which they may portend. All that any of us may hope is that the manifestations, which are not yet of a truly dangerous character, will become no worse. Fortunately,” he added, “it appears likely that the trouble may pass of its own accord in a few months.”
While the accepted scientists of the Western World were laboring in the universities and research laboratories to bring out these confessions of ignorance and confusion, two men of a different type were at work in a quiet, secluded house on New York’s upper East Side. two men whose findings were later to shock and startle the world.
The elder man was Dr. Emile Stannard Scott, a savant who was hardly obscure, however much his opinions were held in disrepute by his fellows. At twenty-two Dr. Scott had been accounted a genius, and a monograph he had written at that age on the construction of the earth’s interior had gained him a worldwide repute. But his later theories proved too radical, even for the more daring of the other scientists of his day. At sixty his books on the same subject, written after years of further study, were received more often with ridicule than with respect.
The other man was King Henderson, still young, and thought by many to be a rising star in the scientific world.
He was tall, determined, and quiet, a man for whom the knotty problems of science were completely fascinating, but one who remembered that ideas must be translated into action to be of value in a workaday world. As he worked with Dr. Scott, it was King who devised the proofs for the elder man’s theories, who arranged the demonstrations, and who carried on many of the more intricate investigations. It was King also who turned the findings of the scientist to useful ends.
In the house there was only one other person, Anna Scott, the daughter of the scientist. She was herself a mathematician of some ability. These three shared the secrets of the private laboratory, and no others knew what they were working at throughout the long autumn when the earth trembled and the ground moved with its strange uneasiness. From the time when the earth-vibrations first assumed importance, Dr. Scott and King had not ceased to speculate on them. It was not until months later, when other scientists had virtually given the matter up as one too obscure for solution, that King checked up the last of his calculations, and Dr. Scott brought to an end the final test which proved his deductions to be correct.
One by one the facts had fallen into place. Like the building of an arch had the theories and the proofs grown and joined, falling inevitably into one pattern. They pointed to a conclusion that was inescapable.
“We’re through,” exclaimed King at length, when, amid the litter of the laboratory, the two men finally ceased their work. “And there’s what we were looking for. !”
As if to symbolize his meaning, he picked up from a table a small, double-pointed iron slug, a little larger than a bullet and somewhat similar to a bullet in shape. Dr. Scott nodded and sat down silently in a chair, looking at the scarred top of the laboratory table with an air of worry and puzzlement. The room was disordered and confused from the last hard hours of the work. Upon the wall a careful chart, tracing the history of the earth’s vibrations as they had grown from tiny, irregular tremblings to regular, powerful rhythmic movements, hung askew as if it had been much examined by men in haste. Chairs and tables were covered with crumpled sheets containing diagrams and endless calculations.
King sat down at the table opposite Dr. Scott, and the two men stared across it at each other for a moment, the elder trembling slightly at the strange import of the information which had come to his hand, the other pondering silently the dread events of the future, which had been forecast vaguely, but none the less surely, in the laboratory that morning.
“The proof is certainly there,” said Dr. Scott slowly. “Yet I hardly dare believe what our own efforts have brought to light!”
King arose, his face betraying the agitation which he was feeling.
“This is certainly no matter for the scientific magazines or the lecture platform,” he exclaimed. “This is for the Secretary of War!”
Dr. Scott smiled bitterly.
“And do you think the learned Secretary would believe it if you did tell him?” he asked. “I’ve had too much experience with public men to think that it would do any good to take this matter to the government. now.”
King had been pacing the room. “Even so,” he replied firmly, “we must try it. We won’t ask the Secretary to believe anything for which he hasn’t seen the proof. Let him visit us in the laboratory, where we can show him anything it requires to satisfy his mind.”
The older scientist, still unconvinced, pondered the matter for a moment.
“I’ll write a letter inviting him,” he said at length. “But it will be your job to get it to his attention.”
“I don’t believe that will be difficult,” replied King. “The only necessary thing is haste. While we are wasting time in speculation here, who knows what may be going on in the center of the earth?”
III
Washington was then, as now, not only the capital city of the government of North America, but the seat as well of the whole Pan-American State. Caught up in the whirl of the pre-holiday social season, in a capital noted the world over for its brilliance and splendor, it is a regrettable fact that the officials of the State were among those in the country who appeared least concerned about the phenomena which had shaken the faith of scientists and inspired fear in the hearts of citizens and workers. Even in the month of December, when the curious manifestations had begun to recur again and again with regularity and increasing severity, there were many who considered them absolutely no business of the Pan-American Government and so conserved their energies for matters more befitting the ruling heads of the Western Hemisphere.
Individually, however, as private persons interested in all affairs which affected the public good, several of the more important officials had given at least passing notice to the earth-vibrations. One in particular, Dr. Philip Angell, the Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas, had even gone so far as to make certain independent mathematical calculations of his own in a vain attempt to explain the riddle. But Dr. Angell, despite his accomplishments in statecraft, was only an amateur mathematician at best and no scientist at all; his interest in the earth-vibrations only led him to dissipate precious energy in following out the fruitless mazes of the subject, and after a time he dropped it altogether to spend his time at better things.
It was toward the end of the last month of that memorable year that the Secretary’s interest in the subject was unexpectedly renewed by a happening which at the time seemed only annoying and of little moment. Busy in his office in Washington, he was going over the text of an address which he was scheduled to make that evening when an attendant came in silently and laid an unpretentious calling card upon the polished surface at his elbow. Impatiently the Secretary glanced up from his work. Upon the card, simply engraved, was the name of his caller.
Dr. Angell looked inquiringly at the attendant. “And who is this King Henderson?” he asked.
“A scientist, sir, I think he said. He has a message which he considers of great importance, sir. He was very insistent.”
“Has he an appointment?” queried the Secretary in a bored tone.
“Yes. it’s true he has, sir.”
“How did that happen?”
“Why, Senator Ellery arranged it yesterday, sir. You remember it, I’m sure.”
“Oh. Senator Ellery!”
The Secretary frowned, glanced at his work and dismissed the matter with a wave of his hand.
“Sorry. I can’t see him now. Some other time.”
The attendant mumbled and went out, and Dr. Angell once more gave his attention to his manuscript. The speech had to do with the well-being of the country, the spread of Pan-American influence and trade. Halfway down the sheet the pencil of the Secretary paused, while he reread a sentence. “A neat phrase, that,” he was thinking. “I must underline it.”
A scuffling sound in the ante-chamber reached his ears. In a moment, while the pencil paused in midair, he was again disturbed by the presence of the attendant in the room. With the attendant was another person. Exasperated, the Secretary swung around in his chair, glancing first at the aide, who was cringing and apologetic.
“I couldn’t keep him out, sir. He scuffled with me and brought me right in here with him. I. didn’t like to use a weapon. “
The tone of the War Secretary was acid.
“That’s what you carry it for, isn’t it?”
“Yes. sir!”
“Then next time. use it!”
The Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas stood up and glanced coldly at the stranger who had taken such liberties with the dignity of his office. He saw before him a tall and determined young man, a fellow who had about him a distinct air of courage and initiative. He returned the glance of the Secretary coolly and smiled.
“I am King Henderson,” he announced, without waiting for the official to speak. “Your attendant here . rather got in my way as I was coming in. I’m sorry I had to ruffle his feathers in that way, but it was more or less necessary. “
He smiled again as if the explanation had cleared the matter up. The Secretary, however, was still annoyed.
“This is an office of the Government of the Pan-Americas,” he declared severely, “and an important one. I shall ask you, young man, to leave the way you came, but more quietly.”
The visitor’s eyes grew serious. “I realize that I have committed a breach in forcing my way in here,” he replied. “I hope you will forgive my levity about it. The matter which brings me here, however, is of such importance not only to you but to the whole Western World that I would never have been forgiven by you or by the people of the Pan-Americas if I had not brought it to your attention, no matter how unconventionally.”
“Well. !”
The Secretary, somewhat mollified, hesitated between calling the capitol guards or permitting his visitor to continue. King, however, seized his opportunity and took the decision out of Dr. Angell’s hands by continuing, unbidden.
“It is about the shaking and jarring of the earth, which has so troubled the scientists of the world in the last few months,” he explained. “I bear a message from a scientist who has found the answer to the riddle and who has discerned in these manifestations a matter of such grave import that he considered it of the utmost importance to bring it to your attention before it is announced to the world.”
“And who is this scientist?” Dr. Angell’s tone betrayed a glimmer of interest.
“Dr. Emile Stannard Scott.”
The Secretary, cudgeling his brain to recall where he had heard the name of this scientist before, or what had been said of him, replied vaguely.
“Hmm. I see.”
“Do you know him?” asked King.
“Well. I rather think I’ve heard some one speak of him. At any rate, his name is well known.” The Secretary was again permitting his attention to wander to the papers on his desk, seeking some means of bringing the interview tactfully to a close. “Well,” he said at length, somewhat coldly, “I’m glad to hear that the matter is finally settled. and of course I’m glad to hear that the successful scientist is Dr. Scott.”
“But the point is,” said King, “that the matter is not settled, else we would never have troubled you about the matter at all. I have here a letter and an invitation from Dr. Scott. What he has written there, I think, explains itself.”
Dr. Angell took the missive suspiciously and broke the seal. The communication was couched in the characteristically blunt and direct language of the old scientist. It would cause no little amusement in official circles, the Secretary was thinking, if he should choose to exhibit it.
Dr. Scott had written that a matter affecting the safety of many thousands of persons had come to his attention, and he requested the Secretary to come for an interview at his laboratory in New York City without delay.
“You are yourself a student and a mathematician,” Dr. Scott had written, “and therefore you will probably be interested in what I have to show you in your personal, if not in your official capacity. Needless to say, my researches have convinced me beyond the shadow of a doubt that these tremors are not the result of malignant influences outside our planet, or changes, chemical or otherwise, at its center, in the sense used recently by persons who have been announcing such discoveries.’
“They are, on the contrary, the result of activities directed by human intelligence, and they mean serious, perhaps fatal, consequences to the people of the Western Hemisphere, if not of the whole civilized world.”
“Well,” said King, when he saw that the Secretary had finished, “will you come?”
The official smiled cynically and dropped the note among the litter of papers already on his desk.
“If you ask me,” he replied, ignoring the question, “I think Dr. Scott has become quite a little. melodramatic!”
He bowed politely, signifying that the interview was at an end. King smiled as two attendants appeared to escort him from the room.
“We will be expecting you at the laboratory,” he remarked. “I assure you that if this is melodrama, it is based upon such cold, hard facts that the whole world will be overwhelmed by them if you do not act very soon.”
IV
It is unlikely that the Secretary, who was a popular and busy man, much harassed by public obligations, would ever have acceded to the request of so obscure a savant, and one so obviously mad, had the matter not leaked, in some mysterious manner, to the newspapers. The public announcement that Dr. Scott, whose hold on the popular imagination was tremendous despite his professional standing, had made a sensational discovery with regard to the behavior of the earth and that he had sought to communicate it to Dr. Angell without success stirred up a mighty storm in the more excitable papers. However much the conservative and scientific journals were inclined to scoff, the newspapers that were most widely read expressed at first surprise, then annoyance, and finally downright anger at the Secretary’s neglect of the scientist’s invitation to the conference.
Dr. Angell was sensitive in those days, as always, to the public will, particularly as expressed in print. And when one paper printed his photograph three days in succession on its front page, with the caption: “Hasn’t Seen Scientist Yet!” he capitulated. On the third afternoon he announced that he would visit Dr. Scott at once and learn at first hand whether the old man was insane or otherwise.
Dr. Scott and Anna were in the laboratory with King when the Secretary came. They heard the strong, important ringing of the bell, and King slid down from the tall stool upon which he had been sitting. “I think we have an important visitor,” he remarked. “Now it’s up to you to convince him.”
Dr. Scott smiled briefly. “That may be a tougher job than getting him to come here,” he said, “but I’ll do my best.”
“He’ll believe you,” King replied.
The Secretary was accompanied by a clerical assistant and a uniformed attendant. Dr. Scott, his stained apron napping unceremoniously about his knees, went to the door and admitted him. He offered chairs for the entire party before an alcove in the laboratory, which had been screened off in anticipation of the interview.
“You have met my associate. “ began Dr. Scott warmly. “To his help and ingenuity I owe the success of most of my recent experiments. “
“I can well imagine,” returned the Secretary dryly.
“He paid me a visit at my office the other day.” He glanced airily about the room and continued, “In case he feels like repeating his forced entry, I might say that my attendants have all been instructed to shoot first and ask questions afterward.”
King smiled and gripped the Secretary’s hand. “It won’t be necessary to repeat the visit,” he said. “Dr. Scott will make clear to you to-day what we have to show you.”
“And this is my daughter,” said Dr. Scott.
Dr. Angell saw that Anna was a beautiful girl, quiet and poised. He glanced at her appreciatively as he acknowledged the introduction.
Anna returned his smile.
“I’m glad you came,” she said.
“We are all eager to place this information as soon as possible in the hands of the Government,” Dr. Scott continued quickly. “My letter,” he went on, “explained in general the reason for calling you here.”
The Secretary accepted the proffered chair suspiciously. “If you will pardon me,” he replied, “your letter not only mentioned the subject of this interview, but contained statements which convinced me, my dear Professor, that you are perhaps. a little unbalanced.”
The scientist smiled.
“I thought you would say that,” he returned evenly. “That’s why I asked you to come to my laboratory. Here we can give you demonstrations, Mr. Secretary. We can back our theories up with ample proof!”
King swung the alcove screen aside. In the brightly lighted space beyond there was a model of the earth, a huge globe more than fifteen feet in diameter, made apparently of day and stone, with jellylike masses to represent water and rough approximations of the continents and mountain chains. At the turn of a switch the model moved upon its axis, slowly at first, then with gathering speed. Tiny and intricate seismographic units,3 situated at various places upon the surface, made accurate records whenever this even motion was disturbed. It was a complete instrument for studying the phenomena of the earth.
“You will permit us, I hope, to show you exactly what we mean,” Dr. Scott continued, glancing briefly at his model to observe its turning. The Secretary, who was staring at the huge object with ill-concealed amazement and surprise, slowly nodded.
“Yes,” he replied, “though I haven’t the slightest notion what you are trying to prove.”
“I’ll try to make that clear,” said Dr. Scott.
He took a short pointer from a rack near by and moved it about the sphere, indicating features as he mentioned them, in an absent-minded manner he had acquired through years of teaching in his lean middle life.
“You will remember,” he began, “that these peculiar manifestations were first noticed about four years ago. At the beginning they were irregular, of small importance, and appeared to be located near the surface, somewhere in the northern part of the Eastern Hemisphere.
“They grew steadily in intensity throughout the following two years, and began to attract attention among scientists, at first more because they were difficult to locate exactly than because they were considered dangerous. They were still attributed vaguely to the Eastern Hemisphere, perhaps in the general region of southern Japan.
“But if you will remember, no careful check was possible, because of the conquering hordes which had poured out of central Asia five years earlier, overwhelming both Japan and China. Triumphant, they had closed these ancient lands once again to Western visitors and forbidden all communication between the West and that particular portion of the East.
“Until a year ago it was generally thought that some obscure volcanic action was taking place over there. Little attention was paid to it, because there were thought to be no Occidentals there except a few who were considered to have been killed at the time of the conquest. Therefore, what happened in Japan was deemed of little real concern to us, especially after we were signally unsuccessful in attacking the curious new metal fortifications erected along the shores by those unknown peoples out of Asia.
“The beating and hammering of the earth was not really a cause for serious thought in this country until some scientist discovered that it no longer appeared to be located on the surface at the other side of the globe, but at or near the center. This, I need hardly say, was a most unusual discovery, for hitherto earth shocks have all been supposed to originate somewhere near the surface; at least within that outer envelope of hard crust known as the lithosphere, which for convenience’ sake is generally supposed to extend into the earth about ten miles.
“Beyond that depth we know nothing of the earth except what we have guessed and calculated. It was thought safe to conclude, however, that the interior was continually subjected to pressure enormous beyond human comprehension, and that while probably not molten, due to the great pressure, it would be so tremendously hot that the hardest stones would be instantly melted, and perhaps rendered gaseous, should the pressure suddenly be removed.
“Under such conditions, it seems likely that there could be no natural cavities at the center of the earth, and consequently no movement of strata. Accordingly, when tremors were reported to be originating in this hot and compressed region, it caused a sensation. Most scientists immediately set it down to miscalculations or imperfections in the instruments. A few speculated, but got nowhere.”
The Secretary nodded comprehendingly.
“The tremors we now experience first began to cause alarm a few months ago,” Dr. Scott went on. “At that time they first assumed their present regular and rhythmic aspect. Before that they were frequent, but irregular. They varied greatly in intensity and duration. Now they have become so standardized that they can be forecast and measured in advance. Whatever change has taken place in the earth, it is certain that these manifestations have entered a new and terrifying phase, no longer to be confused with earthquakes or ordinary mechanical or chemical phenomena.”
The scientist paused for a moment, dramatically. Dr. Angell, the Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas, was sitting forward in his chair, deeply interested, and for the first time understanding the problem in its scientific light. His attendants, neither of them learned men, were also interested. In the face of the clerk, who had been taking down Dr. Scott’s remarks in shorthand, there was a peculiar expression of horror as if he had already grasped the significance of the words and the conclusion to which they must inevitably lead.
The professor continued, sure of his ground. He emphasized with his pointer as he went on with the explanation.
“I need hardly show you samples of the seismographic readings,” he said. “No doubt you already have plenty of them in your office, for I understand that you have earlier interested yourself in this problem. But I must make certain comparisons with typical readings to show you the purpose of this model earth here and what it proves.”
He touched the button. Instantly there flashed upon a screen above the model a banded chart, with the spidery scrawling of a seismograph clearly marked upon it.
“This is one of the readings, which have often been duplicated in the last few months, as it appeared in Washington. Now if you will notice, I have placed one of my miniature seismographs on the model at Washington. I have built this earth as accurately as I know how, to reproduce the actual conditions as far as that would be possible. The inside is filled with a viscous mass, simulating the viscosity of the earth. The outer shell is made in proportion, both as to weight and thickness. The oceans, simulated in jelly, are approximately correct. In the model I have also placed powerful magnets in such positions that they roughly represent gravity, attracting toward the center. Unfortunately, I have been unable to overcome the force of the real gravity, but I have compensated for it, and in a measure offset its importance for the purposes of this experiment.
“You will observe, if you look closely, that there is a small opening in the earth on an unexplored and hitherto unknown island in the Japanese Sea. There is another exactly opposite it in a small hypothetical island near South America. These openings are connected by a long tube which passes directly through the center of the model, and through which I will drop this iron bullet when we have got the model to rotating at the proper speed.”
The lights in the laboratory suddenly went out, except for a single bright glow at one side of the globe, which might have represented the sun. The huge model began to revolve. It gained speed rapidly, until a small instrument which Dr. Scott held in his hand gave a sharp click. At that point he kept the speed of the model constant.
“We have now reached a rotation,” he explained, “approximately proportional to that of the. earth, reckoning the size of the model in relation to that of the larger sphere. We have spent much time refining these instruments and insuring the accuracy of this experiment. I will now permit the bullet to drop into the tube, where it will respond to the electro-magnets, being iron, as an object dropping into the real earth would respond to gravity.”
There was a click, a slight train of sliding sounds as of metal touching metal at growing speed, then silence. Dr. Scott turned off the power and brought his earth model gently to a stop. Quickly he took the reading of the tiny seismograph located at Washington and flashed it on the screen, greatly magnified, beside the one already showing there. The similarity between them was apparent.
The Secretary looked at the two readings, then at the model. With a puzzled expression he turned to the scientist.
“You have reproduced the tremor,” he admitted, “but still I do not see. “
Dr. Scott laid down his pointer with an air of patience. “Mr. Secretary,” he said, “you have had a great deal of interest in this problem as an amateur scientist. But it was not in this capacity that I called you here to-day. It was because of your duty as a defender of the Americas.
“In short, I am telling you that certain mysterious and hostile peoples on the other side of the earth, fearing to attack us in the air or on water for reasons I shall explain, have dug a tunnel directly through the hot center of the earth, and at this moment are preparing to land a hostile force in South America, in the first drive of a war which may wipe out all of the white population on both of the American continents, and which may, if they are not careful, destroy the earth as well!”
The Secretary rose, his face red and furious.
“You are joking with me,” he said. “I did not come here for that kind of entertainment. A tunnel through the earth! Impossible!”
“Please, please,” said Professor Scott, standing in front of his guest firmly, “do not be so sure that it is impossible until I have explained further. Impossible for us. yes, I will admit that. But that it was impossible for those people who have so cunningly sought to attack us in this manner it certainly was not, and that I can show you also, if you care to hear.”
The anger of the Secretary was genuine. “My good man,” he exclaimed, “you don’t know what you are saying. If this story ever gets out they will make a worse fool of you than ever before. Please stop this nonsense while you still have a shred of reputation left!
“Your own words have condemned this new theory. What of the tremendous pressure you mentioned a short while ago? Don’t you know that the subsurface pressure of the earth has been pretty accurately calculated for a depth of ten miles, and that only so far down it would be equal to thirty times the crushing strength of the finest steel, and nearly one thousand times that of the strongest stone?
“And what of the heat to which this hypothetical earth-tube would be subjected? You have yourself said that the probable temperature at the center of the earth would be sufficient to melt and render gaseous any known rock. What would this invading force build their tube of, to stand such tremendous heat, supposing for the sake of argument that they had found a way to dig the hole under such impossible difficulties in the first place?”
Dr. Scott smiled.
“Sit down, Mr. Secretary,” he said coolly. “I was coming to that.”
The Secretary made a gesture of resignation. “I will listen,” he said, “but please don’t expect me to believe what you say.”
V
The room grew quiet again. The Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas, charged with the defense and protection of hundreds of millions of persons on two continents, listened quietly but with apparent disbelief when the old scientist continued his explanation.
“If you will remember,” Dr. Scott said, “when the unknown tribes poured out of the Asian wastes to conquer China and later Japan, they were able to succeed against those clever and intelligent peoples, trained in all the arts of war and equipped with the most modern explosives and gases, because of one thing. They were able to build metal breastworks and crawling tanks which appeared able to withstand the highest-powered explosives and the battering action of every gun in the enemy camp.
“They had guns, too, and airplanes like those of the Chinese and Japanese, but with the handling of these they were only moderately expert, and in using them against the opposing forces they were relatively unsuccessful. But though the Chinese and Japs, in combined force, were able to beat them out of the air and off the water, the invading race still came on as inexorably as if there had been no armies to oppose them. In armored cars and tanks they moved across the country, occupying it in metal forts which withstood blast after blast without weakening.
“In short, their success was due to one thing only, in which they were superior to their enemies. That was the possession of a heavy and infinitely strong metallic substance which they had discovered or originated in the closed country from which they came to conquer the East.
“This metal was apparently too heavy to put into the construction of airplanes; hence they were beaten in the air. It was too heavy also to put in battleships; hence they failed also on the sea. But it was of such a nature that they finally erected a bridge across a series of islands to Japan. And once there they succeeded in wiping out or enslaving the whole race, and they closed the East again to Western ideas and commerce.
“The new metal caused a great deal of comment at the time, but since no samples of it were ever secured and since later developments prevented any knowledge of it from reaching our hemisphere, references to it by war correspondents in the newspapers of the period began to be ridiculed, and scientists treated the whole subject as a myth.
“But I tell you now that that metal was not a myth. I have no idea what it may be, but I am convinced from private calculations that it is a composition, fashioned in some soft form first, then hardened in place for all time. I am certain that it is able to withstand the tremendous pressure of the interior of the earth and that the heat there does not affect it. I am reasonably convinced, in fact, that it acts as a partial insulator for the heat, and so serves to keep the interior of the passage through the earth cool enough to make life within it possible.”
When Dr. Scott paused there was for a moment no sound in the room. Suddenly a slight tremor could be felt, several times repeated, like the shudders caused by heavy traffic. Two test tubes, standing close together on a bench, chittered together for a second, then ceased.
The Secretary spoke. “Have your researches disclosed any further material?” he asked, in a half-mocking way.
Dr. Scott answered him seriously, overlooking the unbelieving tone.
“A great deal more,” he replied, “and some of it is susceptible to some demonstration upon this miniature earth if you care to have me go further into it.”
Dr. Angell made a gesture of assent. It was evident that he was being interested and convinced against his will.
“Then, without going too much into the methods by which we arrived at these results, let me say that Mr. Henderson and I have decided the location and dimensions of the hole through the earth. While the exact nature of some of the contrivances used by the invaders must of necessity be a bit hypothetical, since we are describing something we have never seen, in the main I am sure that future experience will bear us out.
“We believe that the tunnel has been built from an artificial island in the Japanese Sea to another artificial island in the South Atlantic, not far from the shore of lower South America. This route, as you may see from the globe, passes directly through the center of the earth, cutting the plane of the earth’s rotation at an angle roughly of forty-five degrees.4
“We are also convinced that the tube is about a tenth of a mile in diameter, and being approximately eight thousand miles in length, it displaces about two hundred and twenty-eight cubic miles of substance taken from the earth. Hence the necessity for starting it from an artificial island, which provides an easy method of disposing of all this rock and debris.
“Supposing that the average depth of the oceans at the ends of the tube was one mile, there would be enough material, not counting the natural expansion when brought to the surface, to make two islands, each with an area of about one hundred and fourteen square miles, or a diameter roughly of twelve miles. The island on the western end would have to be built, of course, after the tunnel had been holed through, and material for its construction is probably even now rushing through the earth at inconceivable rates of speed, in the same earth-car these invaders will use later to transport their warriors to the Western Hemisphere. They will build not only islands, but causeways also to the mainland at either end. They will tie together Japan and South America by a continuous land-link through the center of the earth.
“As to the recurring and rhythmic earth tremors; they are the record simply of the progress of the earth-car on its frequent and regular journeys through the earth.5 Not knowing the exact weight of their metallic material, we have been unable to calculate the dimensions of this car, but by analogy and experiment we have come to believe that it is shaped somewhat like my iron bullet, probably pointed at either end. It must be nearly the same diameter as the tube, or about five hundred feet, and for the sake of proportion as well as capacity we believe it to be nearly two thousand feet in length from tip to tip.
“Such a car, passing from one hemisphere to the other across the field of the earth’s rotation at the speed of a falling body, would produce the tremors noticed everywhere by seismographs and would be able to make the journey, theoretically, in about 38.47 minutes, with little or no aid except the force of gravity.”
The Secretary raised his hand suddenly. “You are wrong there,” he said. “The force of gravity ceases to exist at the center. Therefore your imaginary car would stop at that point and hang suspended in the middle of the earth!” He continued triumphantly:
“All directions would be up’ to it, and the tunnel would be as effectively plugged as if cubic miles of dirt had been poured into it to fill it up.”
Dr. Scott smiled patiently.
King, who had stepped out of the alcove, where he had been directing the apparatus, broke into the discussion.
“You have forgotten the force of inertia,” he corrected. “In a vacuum, and in the absence of friction, the tremendous momentum acquired by the heavy car by the time it reaches the center will be exactly sufficient to drive it against gravity to the other side of the earth, where it would rise to a point exactly corresponding in distance from the center to that from which it started.”
“Of course you are not asking me to believe that your Asians have been able to overcome friction and interference from the air,” demanded the Secretary.
“No,” replied Dr. Scott. “But with this tremendously heavy car, they probably find it necessary to apply relatively little power to bring the load completely through the earth each time. The nature of the power they use we have no means of knowing, of course. But they have heat enough; it may be that they have learned to turn the heat of the earth directly into propulsive force.”
“What about this terrific speed?” objected the Secretary. “If there were both friction and air resistance working against the passage of the car, such speed would be impossible. The heat produced would burn the earth-car up.”
“Exactly,” Dr. Scott agreed. “I did not say the earth-car actually travels through the earth in thirty-nine minutes. That is the theoretical figure, arrived at by the familiar formula for calculating the speed and time of a falling body. The actual time taken by the Asian car is somewhat over two hours, as any analysis of the seismographic reports will show you. This is still an enormous speed, and one which must produce a prodigious amount of heat. I have no doubt but that they find it necessary to resort to artificial cooling.”
The Secretary arose with an impatient gesture.
“I have many questions,” he said, “and I have no doubt you could answer them if I had time to amuse myself further with this discussion. But I have really important matters to attend to, my dear Doctor. Thank you for an extremely pleasant and unusual afternoon.”
Dr. Scott dropped the curtain over his model and turned to his guest with a flushed face.
“I had no idea that I could convince you,” he said evenly, “but still I felt that it was up to me to do what I could. There is an old adage: Forewarned is forearmed.’ I wanted to prepare you for what I am certain you will learn in a few days. weeks at the most. I wanted you to get ready your defenses against these people before they become too strongly entrenched. I tell you, once they get their breastworks and fortifications up, all hell won’t be able to blow them off their artificial island, and it will take more ingenuity and power than the Japs and Chinese had to keep them from taking the whole Western Hemisphere.”
The Secretary smiled icily. “Thank you, Doctor, for your great interest in this matter,” he replied.
He walked slowly toward the door, accompanied by his aides. Anna opened it for him, and he paused a moment to speak to her.
“I hope we shall meet again. under other circumstances,” he said pleasantly.
She made no reply, but closed the door firmly after him.
“That fool,” exclaimed Dr. Scott. “He’ll be back here before long, apologizing. The worst of it is, we’ll have to help him!”
VI
It was without surprise, but with a great deal of excitement, that Dr. Scott read the headlines of a newspaper on the afternoon of January 14, ten days after the visit of the Secretary of War. The newspaper carried the announcement that a steamer had sighted “unusual volcanic disturbances” in the waters off the coast of southern South America, and that she had herself been crippled in an explosion there.
The story, radioed from Montevideo, said:
“The steamer San Barleyduc, carrying passengers and freight along the coast here, reported to-day about seventy-five miles off shore that it had sighted unusual volcanic disturbances,’ and that upon going closer to investigate she had been struck by debris which tore a huge hole in her bow. Five liners, two of them several hundred miles away, are hurrying to the rescue, but fears are felt for the 320 passengers and crew of the steamer, which is reported to be sinking fast. Navy cutters have been ordered out of base here to aid in the rescue.
“According to the radio received from the San Barleyduc’s captain, the volcanic manifestations are taking place upon a small island, hitherto uncharted, which seems to be growing near latitude 36 south, longitude 55 west, almost in the mouth of the bay. At the center of this island is a huge mushroom-shaped shield, said to be metallic in appearance, but probably composed of smoke.
“Under this shield from time to time the ship saw puffs of vapor, accompanied by violent disturbances in the water. Near the edge of the island new land seemed to be coming up from under the sea, especially on the northwest side, nearest the mainland, where a long finger had already begun to reach out in the general direction of this city.
“The San Barleyduc drew as near as it dared, and the officers scanned the whole performance through glasses. Little more could be learned because of the tremendous clouds of vapor over the new island and in the general region. The weather here has been unusually rainy and cloudy the past few weeks, and it is thought that the phenomena observed by the San Barleyduc may have something to do with it.
“As the officers of the steamer watched, they saw what appeared to be a beak or spout at the edge of the mushroom shield turn toward them. Suddenly there was a terrific explosion, and the ship was covered with a shower of heavy rocks, many of them very hot. Three members of the crew were killed outright, and many passengers were injured. It was found that one rock, apparently weighing many tons, had pierced the metal hull of the ship, and she was going down by the bow.
“It is thought here that other violent explosions in this region might have caused the unusual tremors which have been recorded by seismographs. Many persons fear that a new volcano is rising from the sea, and that it may overwhelm the city. An expedition will probably leave here by air late to-day or to-morrow to fly over the spot and photograph it, if possible.”
Dr. Scott came hurrying into the laboratory with the paper.
“It’s happened!” he exclaimed.
King took the proffered paper from his hand and read through the story carefully while Anna looked over his shoulder. All three suppressed their excitement with difficulty.
“It seems to corroborate our calculations,” Dr. Scott declared. “Already they have begun to build their causeway toward the land, and they have erected a metal shield overhead to protect the mouth of the tunnel and the landing apparatus from attack.”
An hour later King went out and bought a final edition. It carried the story of the sinking of the San Barleyduc, which had gone down with every one on board before any of the rescue ships arrived. Crippled by the first blow, the steamer had been unable to move out of the danger zone. Subsequent explosions had torn her to pieces. Not a single person was saved.
Rescuers, arriving too late, could do nothing but cruise warily near the spot. They confirmed the report of the San Barleyduc’s captain as to the nature of the “volcanic disturbances,” but they were able to add little to the information already on hand.
VII
The telephone was ringing frantically. Some one was trying to telephone Dr. Scott in the night though it was long past the scientist’s retiring hour. The bell rang again and again. Finally King, whose bedroom was nearer the phone, arose and answered. It was the voice of the Secretary of War which he heard coming over the wire. The Secretary wanted to talk with the professor at once.
“He has been asleep for more than an hour,” said King, remembering the old man’s irritability when awakened suddenly.
“That makes no difference,” the Secretary replied. “I must speak to him now. It is a matter of grave importance.”
“I know what the matter is,” said King. “I’m glad you’re beginning to believe that it’s important. I’ll get him.”
Dr. Scott came to the telephone in his bedroom slippers and nightgown, a ridiculous figure to be talking to the Secretary of War. He was, as King had expected, irritable.
“Well?” he demanded into the telephone.
There was a long pause while the Secretary explained why he had called the scientist out of bed and what the trouble was. “I thought it important enough to disturb your sleep about,” he explained.
“It’s no more important to-night than it was ten days ago,” the scientist replied. “You didn’t seem to think it was worth any attention at all then, you know.”
The Secretary apologized profusely. He was not sure, of course, that it was anything of particularly dire import even now, he said, but certain manifestations, described in official messages from Montevideo, had checked oddly with Dr. Scott’s predictions, and the coincidence (if indeed it was a coincidence) had seemed surprising and even alarming. He wanted to know, he said, whether Dr. Scott considered the reports of the captain of the San Barleyduc to confirm his predictions.
Dr. Scott replied without hesitation.
“I most certainly do,” he said.
“Then what,” asked the Secretary, “would you suggest as an easy way to rid our hemisphere of these invaders?”
Dr. Scott laughed. “The Japanese and Chinese thought bombardment with heavy explosives would be an easy’ way,” he said. “The fact is, I haven’t the slightest idea how you are going to keep these fellows from conquering the whole Western Hemisphere.”
Clapping his hand on the mouthpiece, Dr. Scott turned to King.
“He wants to know what to do,” explained the scientist.
“Fine,” replied King. “You know what we decided upon this afternoon. And be sure that he understands the need of immediate action.”
Dr. Scott turned back to the telephone.
“There are lots of things we might try,” he told the Secretary, “but if you want my candid opinion, it looks pretty serious. The important thing is to realize at once the magnitude of the problem and to size up the strength of their present protection, which I understand from news reports is already quite sufficient to guard the mouth of the earth-tunnel. How about an air expedition to make a thorough survey of the works?”
“I think it would be wise,” returned the Secretary rather humbly, and after some thought.
“The sooner the better,” the professor replied. “Why don’t you start it now?”
There was a momentary buzzing on the line. The connection was broken. Some sleepy operator, not realizing the importance of the conversation she had interrupted, had pulled a plug somewhere and cut the Secretary off. In a few minutes the bell rang in the laboratory again. The voice of Dr. Angell came through clearly, still shouting at the operators along the line for quicker service.
“The expedition will be ready to start in about an hour,” he announced. “Four planes will go down, equipped with radios and X-ray cameras and with powerful lights. And of course, I will expect you and Mr. Henderson to go along.”
“Of course,” replied Dr. Scott. “We would have demanded this opportunity. We will be ready when you come for us.”
“Excellent,” said the Secretary. “That will be excellent!”
“By the way,” Dr. Scott asked, “why did you delay so long before calling me up? Your delay of ten days I can understand since you did not believe the evidence I gave you. But reports of this San Barleyduc affair were in the early afternoon newspapers. Yet it is after one o’clock at night before you call me up.”
“Well,” replied the voice of the Secretary, hesitantly, “I was called this afternoon by the Pan-Hemispheres Society to unveil a new monument to peace between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.” He paused, rather embarrassed, then went on. “The ladies of the society had arranged a dinner after the ceremonies, and I. was not informed of the developments in South America until I returned to my office.”
“Pan-Hemispheric peace, eh?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Scott laughed as he hung up the receiver. “Angell will now proceed to learn something about Pan-Hemispheric war,” he said.