PART TWO
Foreword
IN early summer of 1955 the entire world was startled by the unannounced arrival of a space-flyer from another world. As descriptions of the visitor began to come in by radio from different ships on the Atlantic, its identity was established. It was a spherical ship exactly resembling the one that observers at the Brewster Observatory in Arizona had seen, destroying ruthlessly the “Astronaut” on the surface of the moon. Reports as to the location of the visitor showed that it was moving toward the city of New York. A great alarm, which almost resulted in a panic, spread throughout the city; as memories were revived of how a sphere had melted the steel walls of the Astronaut, ten years earlier. Anti-aircraft guns were made ready to fire upon the intruder, if any signs of hostility were shown. It was a night of hectic waiting, during which thousands of New Yorkers fled from their homes, seeking safety in the less-thicklypopulated countryside. The sphere was sighted at dawn, apparently motionless, several miles out at sea. For over an hour, it was watched in breathless suspense. At last it was seen moving slowly over New York harbor toward the Statue of Liberty. Then after spending a few minutes examining the latter, the visitor rose to a height of about four thousand feet and remained motionless in midair. Observers with telescopes saw two windows opened and a white flag, the universal emblem of peace throughout the entire world, displayed. As the news of this spread, the people breathed easier and no alarm was felt as it moved over toward Metropolitan New York. A few minutes later another window was opened, permitting thousands of pieces of paper to fall slowly toward the city, and simultaneously another flag was displayed-— the Stars and Stripes. When the pieces of paper were gathered and it was learned that this message from another world was printed in English, the city was amazed. The emotion of fear was immediately replaced by joy and a celebration was started, which had never been equalled in the history of the city. The message was brief:
“We have come from the moon, on a mission of peace, of great importance to all the people of the earth.
“We, the builders and passengers of the Astronaut, have returned to our own world to establish commerce between the two worlds.
“We regret that we can not make a landing for some time and our story can not yet be told. We consider it your duty to show our visitors from the moon every courtesy. We will be showing them our cities and other wonders of our world, and we may be reached by radio on a wavelength of 230 meters only.
WM. H. HAVERFIELD,
CYRUS LACEY,
LESTER WINTERS.”
It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Dr. Haverfield and the others who started for the moon in 1945, were still alive. They had long been given up as dead and had all been forgotten by the public. But memories were quickly revived as the news of their return was spread through the entire world.
Just as the celebration was reaching its height, the sphere rose to a higher altitude and moved swiftly toward Philadelphia, and after a brief visit, departed for Washington, where it descended slowly to within a hundred feet of the earth, on the lawn of the White House grounds. A small metal cylinder was dropped to the earth, addressed confidentially to the President of the United States.
In Cleveland, the sphere paused over the roof of the Herald’s building and dropped a bulky manuscript, the story of the Astronaut’s voyage, written by George L. Davis, a former reporter for that paper. The earlier material in this manuscript had been published in 1944 and 1945, while the Astronaut was being built and prepared for a voyage to the moon. As the younger people could not remember that period, and many of the older men and women had forgotten the details, it was printed in its entirety, in the Cleveland Herald and all other papers owned or served by The Universal News Syndicate.