The Syracuse Journal, Volume 27, Number 32, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 29 November 1934 — Page 3

Thursday* mov. m, 1934

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CHAPTER V Brighter and brighter, and higher and higher, each night the strange stars stood in the southern skies. Indeed, one ceased to resemble a star at all and appeared, Instead, as a small full moon which grew balefully each night; and now the other also showed a disc even to the naked eye. Each night, also, they altered position slightly, relatively to each other. For the gravitational control of the larger—Bronson Alpha — swung th? smaller. Bronson Beta, about It In an orbit like that of the moon about the earth. Their plain approach paralyzed en terp rise on the earth. Throughout the civilized world two professions above all others adhered moat universally tn their calling: day and night. In the face of famine, blood, Are. disaster and every conceivable form of human anguish. doctors and surgeons clung steadfast to their high calling: and day and night amid the weltering change of conditions and in the glut of fabulous alarms and reports, the men who gathered news and printed IL labored to fulfill their purpose*. Tony saw more of the world’s actlvl ties than most of Its citizens at this time. Ho had scarcely returned from his first tour of the eastern cities when ho was sent out agalg. this time to the Middle and Far West That journey was arduous because of the increasing difficulties of : travel. The railroads were moving the Pacific and the At lantic civilisations Inland, and passenger trains ran on uneasy schedules. Ho saw the vast accumulation of freight in the mid western depots. He saw the horison-filling settlements being prepared. He saw the breath-tak Ing reaches of prairie which bad been put under cultivation to feed the new horde In the high flat country north and west of Kansas. Along the Pacific coast be observed the preparations being made for the withdrawal Brom the western ocean Seattle. Tacoma. Portland, San Fran cisco. Loa Angeles, San Diego, were digging up their roota. Millionaires drove eastward In great limousinewith their most priceless treasures heaped around them. Tony’s work was varied. He con tinned to send back by ones and twos

Brighter and Brighter, and Higher and Higher, Each Night ths Strangs Stare Stood in the Southern Skies. Indeed, One Ceased to Reeembto a Star at AIL

those scientists whose cooneel Herndon desired, and the flower of the young men and women who might be useful I* the event of a great cats ciysm. Hendron's own Ideas were stlU untrystailsed: be felt with Increasing Intensity the need for gathering together the best brains, the healthiest bodies and the stanchest hearts that could be found. He had a variety of plana He had founded two stations In the United States, and was In the process of equipping them for all emergencies Under the best conditions, the personality of his group might divide into two parts and move to those stations, there to remain until the first crisis passed so that afterward they could emerge as leaders in the final effort against doom. Under the pressure of the impend ing destruction, his scientists had pushed their experiments tn obtaining power from atomic disintegration to a point where the power of the atom could bo utilised, within limits, as a propulsive force. Hendron bad thereupon succeeded , in bombarding the surface of the moon with a projectile that was. to its eesenttals. a small rochet. He had settled the problems of bun composition, insalattee and aeration, which would arise in such a vessel, if made in a etae to be occupied by men. He had devised rockets which could be di TOCfefi He bad constructed a rocket with vents at both ends so that a discharge to the opposite direction would brent Us «alk Several vu- h rn k -ts

be actually' dispatched under remote control, hurtling many miles Into the air, turning, descending part way under full force of their stern “engines,"’ and checking their fall by forward discharges at the end of their flight, so that their actual landing had not destroyed even the delicate instruments they contained. The chief problem that remained unsolved was a meta) sufficiently resistant to the awful force Hendron employed. Even the experimental rockets often failed In their flight because the heal generated by the atomic combustion within them melted and blew away the walls intended to retain It. So, at the Hendron laboratories, the world’s metallurgists concentrated lheir forces upon finding an alloy cap able of withstanding the temperatures and pressures involved in employing atomic energy as a driving force. Tony visited both of Hendron's sta thins. One was in Michigan and one In New Mexico. He brought back reports on the progress being made there In the construction of laboratories, machine shops and dormitories. He found Hendron sleepless and Icily calm In the midst of his multitu d I nous enterprises. Rut Eve showed the strain more than her father, and during the first evening, which they spent together, she expressed her fear: "Father’s greatest ho|<e was that his ship would l»e successful. There Is more Information than has been given out about the Bronson bodies. We admit that they will come very close. Terribly close. We do not tedmit yet precisely how close.” They were standing together on the balcony overlooking the brightly lighted and still noisy city. Their arms were locked together tn defiance of their oath to the league. “He’ll succeed." Tony said. “He has succeeded, except that every rocket he builds is limited tn the distance It can fly and the power It can use by the fact that its propulsive tubes melt. There isn’t a metal nor an alloy tn the world that will withstand that heat." Tony did not answer. Alfter a long silence she spoke again. “It’s an awful thing, Tony. Ixxvk down there. Look down on the city. Think of the peo

pie. Look at the lights, and then Imagine water, mountains of IL Water that would reach to here!’* Tony held her arm more tightly. “Don’t torture yourself. Eve.” ”1 can’t help IL Oh, Tony, just think of It!" "Well, that’s tbe way things have to be. Eve." He could not say any more. When Tony went down, the street was still filled with people. All the people were talking. They walked, but It did not seem to matter to them wbat direction they toe* er what chance company they shared. The strange small moon, growing larger each nighL shone palely to tbe •byTony bailed a cab. His eyes settled on his shoes when he sat down. Into every thought darted tbe face of Eve as be had last seen it—a toce growing hourly more haggard. He remembered tbe downcasting of her eyes. When Tony arrived at his apartment he called a number to Greenwich. ConneetieuL waited an abnormally long time, then asked a maid Mrs. Drake. His voice was warm and calm. “WeU. Mother. How are you?" His mother’s reply eras controlled, but nerves stabbed through every word she said. “Tony, darling! I’ve tried and tried to reach you. Oh! Pm just aa toeb short of ftetottog. I thought “Sony, Mother.. Tve been busy." “I know. Come right mat and tell an about It" • 1 canX" —

There was a pause. “You can’t put It In words?” “Na” There was another long pause. Mrs. Drake’s voice was lower, more tremulous—and yet it was not the voice of a hysterical or an unreasoning woman. “Tell me, Tony, how bad Is it going to be?” How could be tell her that for her. there was annihilation, but for himself some chance of escape? She would wish it for him. whatever happened to herself; but he could not accept 1L A berth In the Space Ship, leaving her here! leaving here millions of mothers—and children, too! But probably no one at ail would be saved. Tony recollected almost with relief. Work on the Space Ship, tn recent days, was not really advancing. They were held up from lack of a material to withstand the power that science now could loose from the atom. The idea of esca;*e was probably only a fantasy, utterly vain. So thinking. Tony ended bis talk, and put up the receiver. Taxicabs had been sent for Tony and his party. They made their way immediately downtown to rhe big building which housed the Hendron laboratories. The cab had covered a few blocks when Tony realized throughout Its length and breadth Manhattan bad been depopulated. Here and there a lone figure was visible—usually a figure in the uniform of a policeman or a snklier. Once he thought he caught sight of a man skulking In the shadows of a doorway. But be waa not sure. And there were no women, no children. After the sun had set, it was easy to appreciate why the last recalcitrant thousands of New York's populace had departed. The B.- >nson IWies, on this in fri-htful majesty: a sphere of lustrous wh te larger than the moon, and a second sphere much smaller, but equally brilliant Their awesome Illumination flooded the city, rendered superfluous the street lights which, however, remained stubbornly burning. There were few lights in the skyscrapers. As the taxl -s howled through the murk and dark, unchecked by traffic signals, Tony and Jack Taylor shuddered Involuntarily to see the black buildings which man bad deserted. At the elevator they were met by Eve. She kissed Tony. In an ecstasy of defiance, and then hurried to assist ilk* il I * 11*1 K rf lif ’S Tony and Jack Taylor Shuddered involuntarily to See the Black Buildings Which Man Had Deserted ... At the Elevator They Were Met by Eve. his group in the removal of their baggage. and in directing its dlspasaL Every one left the street reluctantly. The Branson Bodies were hypnotic. In the laboratories there was the utmost confusion. No longer was the inner door closed. Only a skeleton crew bad remained in New York under Hendron. The scientist himself was Introduced by Tony to each of the new arrivals, and to each he said a few words of welcome. Several were already to him. Then Hendron made an announcement—a statement which was repeated afterward in French and German. “Ladles and gentlemen—you will sleep tn the dormitories above here tonight Tomorrow we will remove by airplane to my field station In Michigan. The others are already there. In bidding you good night I must also request no one to leave the building. A splendid view of the firmament may be had from the roof. But the streets are entirely unsafe. The last wave of emigration left New York at sundown this evening. The people who remain sure either law officers or marauders." Jack Taylor was beside Tony when they reached the roof. “As God Ilves, that’s a marvelous thing!” He stared at the two yellow discs In the sky. “Think of It! The heavens are falling upon as—and a few hundred men, here and there, are sitting on this stymied golf ban figuring how to get away!” “Look down, now* said a different voice, “at the street." It was a young man’s voice, carefully controlled, but In spite of Its constraint, ringing with an unusually vibrant and vital quality. Tony recognized a recruit whom he bad not himself selected. It was Eliot James, an Englishman from Oxford, and a poet By profession and by nature, be was the moot impractical of aU the company; and one of the most attractive, to spite of his affectation —if it was that—of a small beard. The beard became him. He was tall, broad-shouldered, aquiline to feature, brown. The baleful moonlight of the Bronson Bodies glinted up from the street “Water," some one said. “Yes; that’s the tide. It’s flowing to from the cross streets from the Hudson, and from the East river, too." “There’s some coming up from the Battery along the avenues sen the % OK bow high?" “Not above the bridges tonight But of coarse the pew aril sows win go.“And the tunnels will be filled?” “CH course." “There are people down there, wadtog In the street! . . . Why did they _«. at VUMk - > - Kami ftlKintlh sSßjr T OWB wbltijcu WKitH. business here.* Uuw tlwir wm-wwed and ■« ■ TJO MQ tney . <ney suppa'vi ’w

TBE SYRACUSE JOURNAL

important to them as we Imagined ours to be to ns. Besides, they’re safe enough tonight. They ran three stories In almost any building and be safe. The tide of course, in six hours.” “Then comes again higher!" “Yes—much higher. For the Bronson Bodies are rushing at us now." “Exactly how,” asked Eliot James, “do they look through the telescope?" “The big one—Bronson Alpha,” replied Jack Taylor, as they all looked up from the street, “not very different from before. It seems to be gaseous, chiefly—it always was chiefly gaseous, unlike the earth and Mars, but like Jupiter and Saturn and Neptune. Its approach to the sun has increased the temperature of its envelope, but has brought out no details of Its geography, if you could call it that Bronson Alpha offers us no real surface, as such. It seems to be a great globe with a massive nucleus surrounded by an immense atmosphere. What we see is only the outer surface of the atmosphere." “Could it ever have been inhabited?" the poet asked. “In no such sense as we understand the word. For one thing, if we found ourselves on Bronson Alpha, we would never find any surface to live on. There is probably no sudden alteration of materia! such as exists on the earth when air stops and land and water begin." “But the other world—Bronson Beta —is different?" “Very different from its companion up there, but not so different from our world, it It has a surface we can see. with air and clouds in its atmosphere. There are fixed details which do not change, and which prove a surface crust exists. The atmosphere was frozen solid in the journey through space, but the suu has thawed out the air and has started, at least, on thawing out the seas.” “Have you seen.” asked the poeL “anything like—cities?” “Cities?" “The ruins of cities, I mean. That globe lived in the sunshine of a star that was an octillion miles away. I thought Just now. looking at it. that perhaps on it were cities like this where people once watched the coming of whatever pulled them loose from their sun, and dropped them into the black mouth of space.” Some of the company about him were looking up and listening; others paid no attention to him. He did not care; a few had shared his feeling; and among them was Eve, who stood near him. “Would you rather we way?” she said to him. “Slipping into space, falling away, all of us in the world together, retreating farther and farther away from our sun, gradually freezing as we went into darkness?” Eliot James shook his handsome head. “No; if I had my choice, I think I’d elect our way. Yet I wonder how they faced It —what they did?" I wonder," said Eve, her eyes upon th “eilow orb, “if we'll ever know.” “Look.” proclaimed some one else who was gazing down, “the lights are beginning to go.” He meant the street lamps of New York, which had been switched on as usual and maintained to this minute. Thousands of them still prevailed, indeed; but a huge oblong, which had been lighted before, was darkened now. “The flood has caught the conduits!" And with the word, the little gleaming rows which etched the streets throughout another district died; but the .rest burned on in beautiful defiance. The city officially was abandoned.; but men remained. Some men, whatever the warning, whatever the danger, refused to surrender; they stuck to their duties and to their services to the last Some men and some boys; and some women and girls, too. And so. on this night, New York had lights; it kept communication—telephone and telegraph, too. But now another pattern of blocks disappeared; Brooklyn went black, Beacons burned—airplane-guides and lighthouses. Ships, having their own electric installations, could be seen seeking the sea. That too, thought Tony, was only a splendid gesture; yet the sight of the ships, like the stubborn persistence of the lights, threw a tingle in his blood and made him more proud of his people. They couldn’t give up—some of them! What use to steer them out to sea? For what would they be saved? Yet captains and crews could be found to steer and stoke them. More blocks were black; the light from the awful orbs of the Bronson Bodies slanted sharp across the streets, their shadows unbroken by the last tempi of the city’s defiance. Now the street gave up sounds—the rush of water as the loud edge of the flood advanced, filling the last floor of the canyons between the buildings. All over the world at the seaboard it must be the same, except that some already were overswept Eliot James moved closer to Eve. •What does It do to yon?" be said. She answered: “Too much." “Yea," he said. “And it’s only begun?" “It’s not begun." whispered Eve. “This—thia to really nothing. Tonight, the waters win merely rise over the lower buildings of the city, and then subside. We will all leave in the ebb tide." “Which, I suppose, will •drain the rivers dry? There was clearly no practical purpose for staying this twelve hours longer; but I am glad we did. I would not have escaped this sensation.” Tony drew Eve away. He made the excuse that, her father having retired. she also should sleep; but having taken her away from the others, be kept her to, himself. “Eve, we’ve sot to marry!” •My dear, what would marriage mean now?" “But you feel it, don’t your* •Need for you—“ “As never before, Ever •Yea, Tony. It’s as be said—ob. my dear! Tbe waters overwhelm you—the flood rising and rising, and those two yellow discs doing it ’ And no one can ston. them! They’re com'-- q->.

Tony F They're coming on. to ITT ths waters higher and higher; they’re coming on to crack open tbe shell of the earth! Tony—oh, hold me!" “1 have you, Eve. You have me! Here we are, two of us together . . . they’re in pairs wherever they are to New York tonight. Eve. Didn’t you see them? Wherever they waited, a woman waited with a man. There’s only one answer to —annihilation. That’s it" “Tony!” "My dear —” “What’s that—your name? Some one’s searching for you.” In the yellow light on the roof, they could see a uniformed boy. He had arrived at the building an hour ago, the boy was saying; with the elevators stopped, be had climbed to the roof by the stairs. Tony took his telegram, ’tore It open and read: “Mrs. Madeline Drake Murdered By Looters Who Balded Several Connecticut Farms and Estates Late Today." The paper dropped from Tony’s fingers; He slumped to a bench and covered his face with bis hands. He felt Eve’s hand and looked up, utter despair on his face. “Read that." He saw that she held his telegram. . “I have read it Tony—" “I should have gone to her; or 1 should have taken her away—but I believed it best to leave her in her home as long’as possible. I was going to her tomorrow. Now—now—" She checked his flow of recrimination, sitting on the bench beside him and reaching up to smoothe his hair as If he were only a child. “You couldn’t have done a thing, Tony. All over the country, bands of men have been running like wolves.” Tony leaped to his feet. “I’ll go to her, and find them, and kill them!” “You’ll never find them,'Tony. -Besides, Tony, they’ll be punished without anyone raising a hand. Perhaps already they, are dead.” “But I must go to her!" “Os course; and I’ll go with you; but we must wait for the tide to fall.” “Tide?” He stalked to the edge of the roof. Now he saw the streets running full, not with the foul water of the harbor, but with a clean green flood. The Bronson Bodies lit it almost to dim daylight. Tony gazed up at them, aghast. “My mind can understand it. Eve; but, good G—d, she was my mother! Murdered! The d—d cowards—He did not finish. He was racked by a succession of great sobs. Eve caught his hand and brought him again to the bench. Still. they were alone, and she sat close beside him, holding him in her arms. For a long time they said nothing; then they arose, returned to the parapet and gazed down at the water. Strange sounds arose with the flow of the flood; the collapse of windows under the weight of water; the outrush of air, the inrush of the tide. Away on other streets not citadaled by the massive towers whose steel skeletons reached down to the living rocks, the walls were beginning to fall. Smoke drifted like a mist’between the buildings as the water, the final enemy of fire, began to cause conflagrations. But there was no wind tonight; so the flood isolated each fire; here and there a building burned; but the huge terraced towers of Manhattan stood’dark and silent, intact. “You must try to sleep, Tony.” “And you!" “Till the tide goes out; yes, Tony. I’ll try, if you will.” She kissed him, and they Went in together, to separate at the door of the room where she was to sleep. Tony went on to the bed allotted him. and lay down without undressing. In the next room Cole Hen dron was actually asleep. When Tony awoke, he stalked to tbe window to look down at water, now rushing seaward. The roll of the world, while he had slept, had turned the city and the coast away from the Bronson Bodies so that now they sucked the sea outward; and the wash made whirlpools at the cross streets in tbe gray light of dawn. “Coffee,” said Kyto, “you will need.” “Yes,” admitted Tony, turning, “I’ll need coffee.” “Miss Eve insists to pour it” “Oh, she’s up.” “Very ready to see you." An airplane hummed overhead; at some small distance, several others. Ransdell undoubtedly was in one of them. Inspection from the air of effects upon the earth was one of his duties— a sort of reconnaissance of tbe lines of destraction. Tony thought of Ransdell looking down and wondering about Eve. The flyer’s admiration of her amounted to openly desirous adoration. There was the poet Eliot James, too. They Were bound with him—and with Eve—in the close company of tbe League of the I-ast Days, whose function lay no longer in the vague future. The peculiar rules and regulations of the League already were operative to part; others would clamp their control upon him immediately. Tony today resented it He made no attempt to shake off bls over pos sessive jealousy of Ransdell or Eliot James over Eve. She would go home with him today—to his home, where his mother had been murdered. Eve and he would leave his home together —for wbat next destination? To return her to her father, who forbade Tony attempting to exercise any exclusive claim upon her? No; Tony would not return her to her father. Hendron had arisen: and as if through the wall be had read Tony’s defiance, be opened tbe door and en tered. He offered his band. “I have heard. Tony, the news which reached you after I retired. I am sorry." c “You’re not." returned Tony. It was no morning for perfunctory politeness. “You’re right," acceded Hendron “I’m not I know it Is altogether better that your mother died now. I am sorry only for the shock to you, which you cannot argue away. Eve tells me that she goes home with you. I am glad of that . . . Last night Tony, the Bronson Bodies were studied in every observatory on the side of the world turned to them. Os course they were closer than ever before, and conditions were highly favorable for observation. 1 would have liked to be’ at a telescope; but that is the prerogative o' others. My duty was here. Howivcr. u c-v resorts have reached me.

Tony, cities have been seeS* ~~ ! “Cities?” said Tony. “On Bronson Beta. Bronson Alpha continues to turn like a great gaseous globe; but Bronson Beta, which already had displayed air and land and water, last night exhibited—cities. ... We can see the geography of Bronson Beta quite plainly. It rotates prob- > ably at the same rate it turned, mak- i Ing day and night, when it was spinning about its sun. It makes a rota- j tion in slightly over thirty hours, you may remember; and it happens to rotate at such an angle relative to us that we have studied its entire surface. Something more than two-thirds of the surface is sea; the land lies chiefly tn four continents with two well-marked archipelagoes. We have seen not merely the seas and the lines of the shores, but the mountain ranges and the river valleys. “At points upon the seacoasts and at points In the river valleys where intelligent beings—if they once lived on the globe—would have built cities, there are areas plainly marked which have distinct characteristics of their own. There is no’doubt in the minds of the men who have studied them; there is no important disagreement The telescopes of the world were trained last night Tony, upon the sites of cities on that world. Tony, for millions of years there was life on Bronson Beta as there has been life here. For more than a thousand million years, we believe, the slow cautious but cruel process of evolution had been going on there as it has here. “That is the significance of the cities that we have seen. For cities, of course, cannot ‘occur.’ They must have thousands and tens of thousands of years of human strife and development behind them; and, behind that, the millions of years of the mammals, the reptiles, the life in the seas. “It is a developed world—a fully developed world which approaches us, Tony, with its cities that we now can “Not inhabited cities,” objected Tony. “Os course not inhabited now; but once. There can be no possible ■' doubt that every one on that world Is dead. The point is, they lived; so very likely we also can live on their world —if we merely reach it." "Merely," repeated Tony mockingly. ' “Yes,” said Hendron, ignoring his tone. “It is most likely that where they lived, we can. And think of stepping upon that soil up there, finding a road leading to one of their cities— | and entering It” He recollected himself suddenly and extended his hand. “You have an errand, Tony, to complete between the tides. I gladly lend you Eve to accompany you. She will tell you later what • we all have to do." He led Tony to Eve’s door but did not linger, thereafter. Tony went in alone. (TO BEL CONTINUED.) 1 Le Roi Nite Club—Special Added Attraction, Wednesday and Thursday: Miss Vallerie Beck, late of The Mexico Garden, World’s Fair. ' —ad TRY A JOURNAL WAJZT AO FAMOUS READING ANTHRACITE Clean . Pure . Long-burning We recommend this coal because it gives you the big advantages of scientific SUPER CLEANING, and because it comes from the richest mines in the world’s largest coal properties. Buy a load and be convinced that it is Nature’s Finest Coal. McClintic, Colwell & Gordy 125—PHONE—125

Specials XT ■ • ’V Saturday All Items Cash SUGAR, 10 POUNDS, 43c With SI.OO order of Groceries not including Flour. - CORNMEAL, NEW, 5 pounds "16c RICE, 7c per lb.; 3 lbs. for 17c MOTHER’S COCOA, 2lb can,.... ...... .. 20c — ~, -J—,. , . _ . SALAD DRESSING, Quart Jar, 25c CHIPSO, 1 box, 17c BAKING POWDER, 10c can ... ..... 8c CORN, 13c can for 10c HOMINY, per can .. 5c GINGER SNAPS, 15c lb.; 2 !bs 24c A Fine Large Assortment of Christmas Candy Has Just Arrived—Come and See _ ft Seider’s Grocery

NEW HUNTING, FISHING LICENSES ARE PRINTED INDIANAPOLIS, Ind—Hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for 1935 have been printed and are now being prepared tor distribution to the county clerks and other designated agents, to be placed on sale December 15th, it was announced by Virgil M. Simmons, Commissioner of the Department of Conservation. While the licenses will be placed on sale throughout the state on Dec. 15, they will not be valid until Jan. 1. The sale of hunting licenses has been unusually heavy throughout the state during recent' weeks, county clerks have reported. In many counties the number of licenses issued has been in excess of the number issued during the same period in 1933. These licenses are issued on a calendar year basis, being good from January 1 to January 1, and must be renewed each year.

Grieger’s FANCY GROCERIES Phone 15 „ Free Delivery C'A S H JELLO, IQ_ 3 PACKAGES IvC CHOCOLATE, BAKERS, H lb. fcilL CALUMET BAKING W POWDER POUND Iggg 23 c SUGAR BUTTER, W/or Crackers, 1 2 POUNDS * v V COFFEE, 10 r Sanka Coff cc ■SAHKaB Per LoWJ Pound 43c COFFEE, 99, MAXWELLHOUSE, lb UUkCOME IN AND GET OUR MEAT PRICES OYSTERS FRESH FISH Get your sugar tickets at • I GRIEGER’S Sugar winners last week were: Cal Beck, P. E. Bertram, Esther Kline, Applegate, Forest Kern.

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