Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1910 — A Columbus of Space [ARTICLE]

A Columbus of Space

By Garrett P. Serviss.

Copyright by Frank A. Munsey Co. CHAPTER I. A Marvelous Invention. Edmund Stonewall was the most ingenious man that ever lived. -In my private opinion he was the greatest human being that has ever appeared on this earth, I say this, despite the fact that against my will, and without my knowledge at the start, he took me and two of pur friends in common on the wildest, craziest, most impossible and incredible adventure that ever imagination conceived.

r I ought to hate Edmund Stonewall for what he did to me and to my friends; but, in fact, I reverence his memory. Let me tell you the story, and then you will see the reason that underlies my feeling toward him. In the first place, he made the most wonderful invention that ever the world heard of. In fact, until npw the world never has heard all about it, and I shudder yet when I think of it. It was, of course, based on electricity, for everybody knows that electricity is at the bottom of everything. At came out of that discovery which made so much exciement at the beginning of the Twentieth Century—“radioactivity.”

What.is radioactivity? Heaven only knows. But it came near being the death of me; it has robbed me of my dearest friends; and I don’t know but that, if Stonewall had kept on, it might have put a finish to this old earth of ours! Stonewall was always bothering himself about “power" and “energy” and what not. He knew machinery and engines as a boy knows craps and marbles. But he was dissatisfied wit.i everything. “Men are fools,” he said. “They might be like gods. They ought to run the globe, and steer it where they like.”

You remember the old “Keeley motor?” Well, Edmund believed ip it, but said Keeley had got hold of the wrong end, and would never make it go that way.

All the while he was experimenting himself. He had money from a rich uncle, I guess, and he built himself a laboratory, and once in a while he would invite Jack Ashton, Henry Darton, Will Church and me to come and watch some of his experiments. It was all Greek to us, but it never failed to make us stare. We saw some wonderful things there, that people knew nothing about. Edmund took up Tesla, too, with his communication with Mars idea, but after a while he dropped that, and then came radioactivity.

Wheri the discovery of radium and uranium and those things came out, the rest of us would never have known anything about it but for Edmund. We used to skip that part in the papers, and I can’t say that his explanation made it much clearer; but, anyhow, he made the thing very inspiring to our imagination. “Listen to this, boys,” he said to us. “Here’s Professor Thomson declaring that a single grain of hydrogen contains in its padlocked atoms enough energy to lift a million tons three hundred yards high. But Professor Thompson doesn’t know how to get at the energy, and neither does Professor Rutherford, nor anybody else. But somebody has got to get at it, and I guess it will have to be me.” “But what would you do with it if you got it, Edmund?” asked Jack, in his good-natured, drawling manner. Edmund’s eyes shone strangely, but he replied only: “I would do what Archimedes dreamed of.” None of us knew anything about the dreams of Archimedes, and we dropped the subject. ; < But Edmund Stonewall did not drop it. He simply went to work at it. He used to be at our club every evening, but after he got this new idea we would not see him for weeks on end. And when we did see him he was as

mum as an oyster. But what a look he had in those deep eyes! Somehow, with all his eccentricity, we never connected the idea of craziness with Stonewall. He was different from other human beings, that vfras all. One evening, after a long absence, Edmund suddenly turned up at the club, and mighty glad we were to see him. We couldn’t understand his talk half the time, but it charmed us just the same. We never laughed at his extraordinary ideas. There was a depth in him that awed us. This time he showed an animation that we had never noticed before. “Well, boys,” he said, shaking hands all around, “I’ve got it.” ‘'Got .what?” drawled Jack. “The interatomic energy under control. I’ve arrived where a certain Professor Duncan dreamed of being when he wrote that, 'when man knows that, every breath of air he draws has contained within itself enough energy to drive the workshops of the world, he will find out some day, somehow, some way of tapping that energy.’ I’ve tapped it.” “Indeed!” said Jack. “Well, as I asked you once before, what are you going to do with it?” I have just been telling you that.we never thought of making fun of any of Stonewall’s -ideas, but there was something so extravagant in his words and manner that we all fell into Jack’s half-bantering mood, and united in demanding: -JlYes, Edmund, tell us what you are going to do with it?” Unintentionally we nettled him and, without knowing it, we probably laid the foundation for the 'astonishing thing that happened to us. He did not reply for a moment, while his eyes flashed and his face darkened. Then he said slowly: “If you will come over to the laboratory I’ll show you what I am going to do with it.” Nothing could have suited us better. Ever since Edmund had shut himself away we had been curious to know what he was up to. We all got our hats and walked over to the laboratory. He led us directly into the back yard, which we were surprised to find walled and roofed, so as to form a huge shanty. Edmund opened the door and ushered us inside. I tell you, we were startled by what we saw. In the center of the place was the queerest-looklng thing you can imagine. It Was not anything that I can well describe. I will call it a car, for that is what it most resembled. It was about 18 feet long and 10 feet high and broad, round like u boiler, with bulging ends. It seemed to be made of polished steel. Edmund opened a door in the end. "Step in," he said, and unhesitatingly we obeyed him, all exceptrChurch, who was always a skeptical fellow, and who, for some reason, remained outside. Edmund turned on an electric light, and we found ourselves in an oblong chamber, beautifully fitted up with fancy wood, and with leather-cushion-ed seats all around the sides. The walls shone with polished knobs and handles. , “Sit down,” said Edmund, "and I’ll tell you what I’ve got here.” Then, missing Church, he called out to him to come in, but there was no answer. We concluded that Church, thinking the thing would be too deep to be interesting, had gone back to. the club, Edmund presently resumed: “As I told you a little while ago, I’ve solved the mystery of the atoms. I've power illimitable at my command. If I chose to build the right sort of apparatus, I could drive this old planet of ours against the moon and wreck It! But I’m not going to damage anybody or anything. I’m simply going to try a little experiment. Excuse me a moment” Thereat he stepped outside, and we looked at one another, wondering, but still having too much confidence in Edmund to really set him down in our minds as unbalanced. We rather thought that he was going to show us some wonderful thing, as he used tc do in the laboratory; something we couldn’t understand, but that would be Interesting to lock at. We were not prepared for what followed. We heard Edmund outside in the shanty, making a noise that sounded like the opening of a barn dodr. Then he reappeared, entered the car and closed its door. We watched him with growing curiosity. There was an odd smile on hl* Continued on Page Four.