_By the Author of "The Space Dwellers"_
[Illustration: RAYMOND GALLUN]
_The greatest advances in science will come during the next
hundred years, when our understanding of the different forms of
rays emitted by various strange materials is better developed. The
past century witnessed the discovery of X-rays, as well as the
emanation rays of radium and others. Only very recently a new ray,
the cosmic ray, has been announced as a very potent factor in our
lives. That many more materials found to emit powerful rays will
be discovered, some of them with deadly and altogether unexpected
qualities, is a foregone conclusion. The present story deals with
such instrumentalities and, incidentally, the author has built a
marvelous stirring story which cannot fail to impress you._
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Air Wonder Stories November 1929.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A mid-afternoon sun of the stirring war year 2141 A.D. shone upon a
small battle flier which was speeding southward at an altitude of
fifteen miles. It was a two-seated outfit, cigar-shaped and made of
an aluminum alloy. On the shining metal of its body were painted
several red, white and blue stars--the insignia of the United States;
mounted on its prow were two dangerous looking automatic guns.
Beneath the body of the machine was a convex, hollow sheet of metal
containing a substance which neutralized gravity when acted upon by
the electromagnetic waves sent out by the power stations throughout
the western hemisphere; this device, the Whitley gravitational screen,
supported the craft in the air. Hissing jets of gas ejected at the
stern were driving the machine through the thin atmosphere at a
velocity of nearly a thousand miles an hour. A faint wake of bluish
vapor trailed behind like the tail of a comet.
In the flier were two men wearing the oxygen masks and metal armor
necessary at extreme altitudes; attired in this fantastic garb they
looked for all the world like a pair of goblins from some distant
planet.
As members of the U. S. Scout Squadron Number Five, both had done their
bit in the seemingly hopeless battle of Caucasian nations against the
yellow men of Asia. Holding the controls was George Calhoun, the ace
who had to his credit more than sixty aerial victories, including the
bombing of two great battleships of the skies. Joseph Pelton, his
companion, who in peace time had devoted all his spare moments to
science, was not so successful a fighter; but he had participated in
many hazardous struggles.
These men were now on a three days' leave of absence. The United
States--the only formidable power of the Occident that had so far
escaped being wiped out by the air fleets of Asia, could ill spare
either; but science had not yet found a way to relieve the fatigue that
comes with constant war.
Above them the aviators could see the deep blue-black sky, sprinkled
with stars because of the rarity of the atmosphere. Beneath rolled an
ever-changing panorama of earth, seemingly turned up at the edges like
an enormous saucer. Now they were over the Gulf of Mexico veiled in its
gray-blue mist; now above the verdant agricultural districts of Central
America, long ago occupied by the invaders.
A little more than three hours after they had set out from Chicago,
the young men hung over the snow-capped pinnacles of the Andes, which
looked like mere ash heaps far beneath. Here was one of the few spots
on earth that did not yet resound with the din of war; it was such a
place they sought.
Presently the airboat began to descend in a long spiral; a few minutes
later it settled gently at the edge of a little adobe village on the
eastern slope of the mountains.