indicating that the quarry was near by. But this very nearness was
confusing to Ralph, for the volume of sound prevented him from exactly
locating the invisible kidnapper and the girl. In vain he turned the
aerial in all directions, seeking one point from which it came louder
than another that would determine the course of his pursuit. For the
moment he was halted, and, like some hound baffled by the cunning of
the fox, he cast about him eagerly, waiting for what he knew must come,
the next move of the pursued man.
And then it came--a deepening tone in the telephones, a gradation of
sound that to the trained ear of the scientist told him all that he
wished to know. With an exultant cry he sprang forward, and dashed
through the entrance of a small store.
The proprietor, whose state of mind may best be described by the word
"flabbergasted," struggled for some moments in vain for speech while
Ralph and his men, with outstretched hands eagerly swept from wall to
wall.
"Here, here, you fellows," he finally managed to gasp, "what are you
after? What are you trying to do? You'll knock something over in a
minute. Hey, look out there--there it goes!"
For Ralph had reached around a tailor's dummy, knocking it over as his
hands closed upon something behind it, something invisible and yet warm
and firm; something that quivered and shrunk away at his touch.
The proprietor, rushing forward to pick up the dummy, stopped short,
gaping. Ralph's hands, at the moment of contact, vanished into thin
air. But in an instant they re-appeared, as he drew towards him, out of
the influence of the ultra-short waves what he knew must be the bound
and gagged form of Alice.
Once away from the influence of the apparatus she became visible again.
A sack had been tied over her head and shoulders and her hands were
tightly bound to her sides. She was still on her roller skates, and her
feet had been left free, the sack being sufficient to render her almost
wholly helpless, and unable to make any effective resistance.
As Ralph removed the fastenings and released her, she staggered and
clung to him, her head dropping in exhaustion.
"Oh," she gasped faintly, "what is it? Where did you go?"
"Water!" exclaimed Ralph harshly to those about him, and the fat
storekeeper, trembling with excitement, but withal displaying an
extraordinary energy for one who could never at any time have been a
streamline model, made a dive for a vase of flowers on the counter.
Grasping the tops of the flowers with one hand he flung them in a
corner, and tendered the vase of discolored water to Ralph, panting the
while as one who has run his race, and emerged triumphant.
"I said water--not mud," shouted Ralph in exasperation, as he rubbed
the girl's cold hands between his own warm ones.
"Well, that's water, ain't it?" said the man, and Ralph glowered at him.
"Please," said Alice, trying to withdraw her hands, "I'm all right,
indeed I am. I was just a little dizzy for a minute, but it has all
passed now."
The color returned to her pale cheeks with a rush, and she straightened
herself, and turned away in some confusion, her hands instinctively
going to her hair, the gesture that women have ever used when at a loss
for words.
In the meantime, Ralph's two assistants had found the ultra-wave
machine by the very simple method of feeling about the spot where the
girl had been discovered. When their hands disappeared they knew that
they had it, and Ralph ordered some water thrown upon it, which had the
twofold result of stopping its activity and of bringing it into view.
Having assured himself that Alice was unharmed and recovering from the
shock resulting from her misadventure, the scientist made a minute
examination of the instrument. It was a complicated machine and one
totally strange to him. As he studied it he felt a growing conviction
that this was no earth-made machine, but one conceived and made by a
Martian. Undoubtedly it was the work of some master of science, a true
mental giant.
Then where, he asked himself, did Fernand--if it was Fernand--secure
it, and how? His object, of course, was obvious. He was evidently
prepared to go to any lengths to secure the girl for himself.
Had he not so threatened her? His method of attack had been
ingenious--fiendishly ingenious. Here was no mean antagonist, no petty
enemy, but one whose cunning would tax Ralph's resourcefulness to the
utmost.
When he finally turned away from his inspection he found Alice quite
herself again. She was listening to the store proprietor's version of
the affair, a story that, under the stimulus of Alice's dark eyes, lost
none in the telling, for where facts failed him, imagination did not.
"--flew open before my very eyes," he was saying when Ralph turned
around, "as if by unseen hands. And then this terrible sound--I
can't scarcely describe it, more like (his eye fell on the ultra-ray
apparatus), more like a great machine than anything else. I says to
myself, says I, 'There's something strange about this,' I says, 'I'd
better be on the lookout, I might be needed, for it looks to me,' I
says, 'as though someone was up to something'."
As a matter of fact, he had thought the opening of the door due to a
passing wind, and the hissing of the machine, which has already been
likened to the buzz of an insect, the humming of a bee, let in by the
same agency.
"And then that black man, he gave me a fright for fair," he went on.
"What about him? What was he like?" asked Ralph sharply.
"Ah," said the proprietor, swelling with importance, "that's just what
I've been asking myself. Strange we should hit on the same thoughts
ain't it?"
"Very," commented the scientist, with wasted irony. "Can't you give any
description of him? When and how did you see him, anyway?"
The proprietor put his hands into his pockets and swayed backward and
forward on the balls of his feet. He surveyed each member of his
little audience with glances of poignant meaning, as one who had much
of consequence to tell--all in good time.
Finally he spoke. "He was black," he said, "black all over."
"Yes, yes," exclaimed Ralph impatiently, "you told us that before.
Can't you give us something definite to go by? His face, for instance.
What was that like?"
The other leaned forward and tapped him on the chest impressively.
"Ay, that was black too," he said.
"Black!" cried Ralph.
"Black it was--all covered with a black cloth," said the
none-too-intelligent shopkeeper smugly. "He come right out of the air
before my very eyes, all black, with a black cloth on his face, and
rolled out of my store like a cyclone."
"You should have tried to hold him," said Ralph.
"Well, I gave him a look, I can tell you. He won't forget it in a
hurry. I just stood there and looked at him--like this."
He screwed up his face in so alarming a manner that one of Ralph's
assistants was moved to remark that it was a wonder he didn't drop dead
with a face like that.
"What d'ye mean?" demanded the owner of the countenance in question.
"I said," repeated the assistant, "it was a wonder he didn't drop dead.
I would have. It's all I can do to look at you right now."
Alice, unable to control her laughter any longer, hastily murmured
something about "fresh air" and went to the door.
Ralph, keeping his own face straight by a valiant effort, ordered his
men to lift the ultra-ray machine and take it back to the laboratory to
give it a more minute inspection at his leisure.
The girl and the man were very silent on their way back to Ralph's
home. A tragedy had been narrowly averted and each felt that this first
attempt might by no means be the last.
Only once did Alice voice her fears.
"You know," she said, "I am certain it was Fernand." She hesitated for
a brief moment and then held out her hand. In the palm lay a small
heart-shaped object of a curious translucent green, delicately carved.
It was pierced for a chain, and indeed, a part of the chain still hung
there, but it had been broken off short, and only a few links remained.
"What's that?" asked Ralph.
"A charm that Fernand always carries. He showed it to me once. He's
very superstitious about it, he told me--and I found it back there in
the store when I went to the door."
Ralph looked very thoughtful.
"Then he must have brought that machine from Mars," he said with
decision. "And with such resources at his command, I wonder what his
next move will be."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 7: In 1925 John L. Reinartz, working with ultra-short radio
waves, actually made it possible to look through solid metal plates
with the naked eye.]
9
THE CONQUEST OF GRAVITATION
Alice and her father had been invited, the next day, to Ralph's
laboratory, as he wished to show them some of his latest discoveries.
They found him sitting in front of his desk while he was engaged in
dictating scientific data to thin air.
"Ah!" said Alice, as she entered, "you are evidently using some of the
methods of my kidnapper, since you seem to be dictating to an invisible
secretary!"
"Nothing so complicated," said Ralph.
Ralph, who then welcomed them, denied the charge, and went on to
explain to his party his new invention.
"The evolution of letter-writing has been a slow and painful one. Our
remote ancestors, many thousands of years ago, carved their letters
in stone slabs. Later on, the more civilized Egyptians wrote their
letters upon papyrus. Still later, upon the invention of paper and ink,
communications and letters could be written much better and faster in
that improved manner. Later still, the typewriter came into use.
"All of these methods had one great drawback. It was possible to easily
falsify such records. While there had been handwriting experts, it
happened very frequently in olden times--too frequently, in fact--that
a signature on such an important document as, for instance, a will,
was forged, and it became a question for handwriting experts to decide
whether the signature was genuine. But even the handwriting experts
were not always right.
"It has often occurred to me that it should be possible to use the
human voice as its own document so that it could be preserved in a
different manner than the phonographic method discovered in the 20th
century. Of course, under that method it was possible for one to speak
one's last will and testament, but it was a clumsy way and was rarely
used on account of its high cost. Furthermore it was difficult to
make copies of a talk. Then, too, the disc or cylinder upon which the
phonographic records were made were very fragile, and could be broken,
either accidentally or purposely.
"The method you see me using is phonetic, and it is practically
impossible to falsify such a record. Watch how the machine works."
Ralph reseated himself at his desk and started to talk. Facing him
on the desk was a machine of about the shape of an old-fashioned
typewriter, except that there were no keys. There were a few dials and
knobs and from the top of the cabinet a white sheet of paper slowly
emerged as Ralph dictated. When he had finished, he pressed a button
and the entire sheet was ejected. It was covered with queer-looking
wave lines, similar to the lines made by a seismograph when recording
earthquakes--queer little parallel lines with humps at the tops that
increased from very short wave-like scrolls to long ones. The entire
sheet was covered with these lines in indelible ink. Ralph showed Alice
the page and went on explaining:
"The page which you see here is an exact record of my voice, but just
as no two fingerprints are alike in this world, no two voices are
alike either. Each has certain characteristics produced by certain
overtones in the voices of the various individuals. The pronunciation
of individuals varies, so does the intonation, so does the speed
of talking, so does the timbre of the voice, and a hundred other
differences that to an expert are observable immediately.
"Suppose, then, during my life I have recorded a great many documents
similar to this one. The waves traced on this piece of paper have
certain characteristics, which are entirely individual. Here are two
sheets of paper, both containing the Lord's Prayer, but spoken by
two different individuals in my office. Both of these individuals
have voices that are very nearly alike, yet, you can see how great a
difference there is between the lines. On one sheet the lines are much
heavier and swing in quite an apparently different manner.
"By reference to authentic documents of this character, it will be
impossible to falsify any record by having some one else make such a
spoken record. A will, or any other important document, will, in the
future, be made by this machine and will do away with many court cases
and much business squabble, and much shirking of responsibility.
"Furthermore, by my method it is possible with the same machine to make
as many as twenty-five copies at one time, while the original is being
made. This is done by a chemical process in the machine itself, the
copies being simply thin chemical papers which are being developed at
the same time as the voice-writing is being made.
"Reading these pages is not as difficult as you might think. It would
be necessary, however, to know the _phonolphabet_. The phonolphabet
is not very much different from the alphabet that you now know. Every
syllable and every consonant used by you makes a certain impression
in my machine, and while it may vary, as explained before, still it
remains roughly the same, exactly as handwriting by different persons
may vary, but still you can read because the characteristics are the
same. The same is true of my machine. By studying the characters of the
phonolphabet, it is possible, within a few weeks, to learn how to read
a phonetic letter, with the same ease that you read a handwritten or
typewritten letter.
"I expect that in the schools of the future children will be taught the
phonolphabet so that every one will be able to read phonetic records.
"Another feature of my invention is that if you do not wish to read the
letter you can listen to it." Saying so, Ralph inserted the letter into
an odd-shaped cabinet, which had a slot at the top. Two grippers slowly
began to draw the paper into the inside of the machine. Ralph turned
two knobs and pushed a button, and within a few seconds his own voice
was heard with unmistakable clarity repeating what he had said fifteen
minutes before.
"This machine, likewise, is very simple," said Ralph. "The ink tracing
on the paper record is opaque, while the paper itself is more or less
transparent under a strong light. A light-sensitive cell on the other
side slowly moves from left to right, taking off the entire phonetic
record, as it were. This light-sensitive cell moves in the same ratio
and with the same speed that I originally dictated, and the words
are reproduced exactly as I spoke them, by means of a loud-speaking
telephone coupled to an amplifier.
"Thus it is now possible to have a double record; an audible and a
written one, and with the two it is practically impossible to falsify
records.
"As you know, there have been some big embezzlement scandals recently
and it was not always possible to convict those suspected due to the
clever methods which these swindlers used.
"One great advantage of the new system is that it is done entirely by
machine and does away with the human element. I do not require my real
secretary when I dictate. I sit alone in my study or office and simply
talk."
* * * * *
"There is one unique place, I am sure you will be interested in." Ralph
led the way to the elevator and they quickly shot up to the roof,
where they boarded one of Ralph's flyers and within a few minutes
were heading north. The machine rose until they were up about 20,000
feet. The cold made it necessary to turn on the heat in the enclosed
cab. In the distance, just ahead there shortly appeared a brilliant
spot of light suspended in the dark sky, which quickly increased in
size as they approached. From a distance it appeared like an enormous
hemisphere with the flat side facing the earth below. As they drew
close, they could see that it was a great city suspended in the air
apparently covered with a transparent substance, just as if a toy city
had been built on a dinner plate and covered with a bell-shaped globe.
They alighted on the rim, at a landing stage outside the transparent
covering. They were soon walking along a warm, beautifully laid out
street. Here was neither bustle nor noise. The deepest calm prevailed.
There were small houses of an old-fashioned design. There were shops
in great profusion. There were playgrounds, neatly-laid-out parks, but
without looking at the humans that were walking around, the visitors
felt as if they had gone back many centuries.
There were no power roller skates, no automatic vehicles. There were no
aeroflyers beneath the glass ceiling. Instead a serene calm prevailed,
while people with happy expressions on their faces were leisurely
walking to and fro.
Very much puzzled, Alice wanted to know what this mysterious
glass-encased city was.
"This," explained Ralph, "is one of our many vacation cities that I
hope will soon dot every part of the world. People are living entirely
too intensely nowadays and with the many functions that they have to
perform, with all the labor-saving devices they have, their lives are
speeded up to the breaking point. The businessman or executive must
leave his work every month for a few days, if he is not to become a
wreck. Heretofore we have sent him to the mountain tops or to the
seashore; there he found no rest. The noise, even on top of the
mountains, due to aeroflyers and other vehicles, did not give a man a
real rest. On our floating city there is absolute rest. There is no
noise, no excitement, not even a radio telephone.
"The city, 20,000 feet above the ground, is floating in perfectly clean
and uncontaminated air. This air, while less dense than that further
down, is renewed automatically every few hours. It is invigorating,
just the same as mountain air with all its benefits.
"The roof is made of steel lattice work, thick glass panes being fitted
in between the steel frames. The shape is in the form of a huge dome
covering the entire city, which measures about a little over a mile in
circumference. The height of the center of the dome from the floor of
the city is about 200 feet. At night the city is illuminated by cold
light from high frequency wires running below the dome, similar to the
system now used to light up our cities.
"The floor upon which the entire city rests is steelonium, and the city
is held up by means of anti-gravitational impulse. By neutralizing the
gravity for the area below the floating city and a little beyond it, it
is possible to keep the floating city at any distance from the earth.
In other words, we use a gravitational 'screen,' and then build a city
on top of this screen.
"By charging the gravitational screen at a very high potential, we
nullify gravity and as the city no longer has any weight it can be
placed on any level and remain there practically indefinitely. A few
air propellers keep the city from being blown away by storms or wind.
"Although it was very cold in our aeroflyer as we came up, it is nice
and warm on the streets here. Nor is there any artificial heating
during the daytime. There is perpetual sunshine during the day at this
level, at which practically no clouds ever form.
"The city being entirely roofed over by the glass dome, and the
interior being filled with air, the sun quickly heats up the
atmosphere. Within two hours after the sun rises the air is balmy, and
it would become stifling hot if the air was not renewed from time to
time. Air is a poor conductor of heat, and if the air were not renewed,
it would soon be 150 degrees in the shade. Cold air, however, from
the outside, is continually drawn in so that an even temperature is
maintained. Only at night is the city heated artificially, as without
the sunlight at this altitude it soon becomes exceedingly cold.
"All the heating is done by electricity, and a uniform temperature
is maintained during the night, which is somewhat less than the
temperature during the day.
"There is nothing that a man or woman can do up here except rest, and
that is precisely what they do. One week's rest up here is equivalent
to a month's rest down below."
Ralph, with Alice and her father strolled through the suspended city
in which the simple life was the keynote. There were recreation
parks, gymnasiums, baths of various kinds, such as hydrotherapy,
electrotherapy, and others. There were sun parlors and sun baking
parks. The din of the city, the curse of man's own handiwork, was
absent. Everyone wore either felt or rubber shoes. The entire
atmosphere was delightful and restful.
It was with genuine regret that Alice and her father returned to the
aeroflyer and back to New York.
That night after dinner Ralph took his guests to a new entertainment
that had just become popular. They entered a big building on which, in
big fiery letters, was inscribed
GRAVITATIONAL CIRCUS
Ralph explained to his guests that with the invention of the nullifying
of gravitation, many new and wonderful effects had come about. Gravity,
he explained, was an electromagnetic manifestation, in the ether,
the same as light, radio waves, etc. It had always been the dream of
scientists for hundreds of years to nullify the effect of gravitation.
"In other words," Ralph continued, "if you pick up a stone and open
your hand, the stone will fall to the ground. Why does it fall? First,
because the earth attracts the stone, and second because the stone
attracts the earth. There is a definite gravitational pull between
the two. The effect of the stone in pulling up the earth is, however,
inconsequential, and while the stone does exert a certain amount of
pull towards the earth, the latter is so tremendously larger that the
effect on the earth is not felt at all.
"'If,' scientists had argued for hundreds of years, 'you could
interpose between the stone and the earth a screen which nullified
gravitation, the stone would not fall down when let go, but would
remain suspended just exactly where you left it.'
"Scientists also argued that if gravitation was an electromagnetic
manifestation of the ether, it should be possible to overcome and
nullify it by electrical means.
"It took hundreds of years, however, before the correct solution was
found. It was known that certain high frequency currents would set up
an interference with the gravitational waves, for it had been found in
the first part of our century that gravitation was indeed a wave form,
the same as light waves, or radio waves. When this interference between
the two waves, namely, the gravitational waves and the electrical
waves was discovered, it was found that a metallic screen charged by
electric high frequency waves would indeed nullify gravitation to a
certain extent. If you charged a metal netting in this fashion and you
weighed yourself on a spring scale on top of the screen, insulated of
course from the screen itself, your weight would be roughly diminished
one-half.
"In other words, about half of the gravitation had been nullified, the
other half still remaining. Thus things stood until about two years
ago, when I began to occupy myself with the problem. I reasoned that
while we had achieved much, still much more remained to be done. Our
anti-gravitational screen still let through some of the gravitational
waves, or fifty percent of the energy, which we could not seem to
counteract. I felt that it was not so much the effect of the current as
the material of the screen which seemed to be at fault. Experimental
work along this line convinced me that I was on the right track and
that if ever gravitation was to be annulled in its entirety a screen
of a special material would have to be evolved in order to obtain the
desired results.
"I finally found that only the densest material known, namely
thoro-iridium, would completely stop the gravitational waves, providing
that the metal screen was uninterruptedly bombarded with alpha rays
which are continually emitted by radium.