CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED
The absolute failure of Eldridge's hypothesis immediately threw public
confidence into a profound reaction. Certainty gave place to complete
distrust. Rumor gained ground. The exodus increased. Where formerly only
those who could do so without great sacrifice or inconvenience had left
town, now people were beginning to cut loose at any cost. Men resigned
their positions in order to get their families away; others began to
arrange their affairs as best they might, as though for a long vacation.
As yet panic had not appeared openly in the light of day, but she lurked
in the shadows of men's hearts.
The railroads and steamboats were crowded beyond their capacity. Extra
trains followed one another as close together as the block signals would
allow them to run. Humanity packed the cars. It was like a continual
series of football days. In three of them it was estimated that two
hundred thousand people had left Manhattan. It would have been physically
impossible for the transportation lines to have carried a thousand more.
They had reached their capacity; the spigot was wide open.
Percy Darrow showed Jack the head-lines to this effect.
"Cheerful thought," he suggested. "Suppose the whole four million should
want to get out at the same time!"
Eldridge had come back to the wireless office thoroughly bewildered. It is
a well-known fact that the exact scientist is the hardest man to fool, but
the most fooled if fooled at all. Witness the extent to which noted
scientists have been taken in by faking spiritualist mediums. So with
Eldridge. His hypothesis had been so carefully worked out that the failure
of its logic threw his mind into confusion. Until he could discover the
weak link in his chain of reasoning, that confusion must continue.
An hour and a half after the bulletin announcing the failure of the search
had been posted, Eldridge rushed into the wireless office. The plague of
darkness had lifted after fifteen minutes' duration.
"Call Monsieur X," he gasped to the day operator. In fifteen minutes, by
rapid substitutions of batteries to weaken or strengthen the sending
current, he had redetermined his previous data. Apparently, without the
shadow of a doubt, Monsieur X was within the circle.
"He may be at sea," suggested the operator.
But Eldridge shook his head. The circle of the sea had been well
patrolled, and for days.
"Begin over again," drawled Darrow. "I told you that you were on the wrong
track."
Eldridge glanced at him.
"I can't say that you've done much!" said he tartly.
"No?" queried Darrow, with one of his slow and exasperating smiles.
"Perhaps not. But you'd better get to thinking. You won't be able always
to take things easy. You may have to hustle before long."
"There has been, I admit," said Eldridge stiffly, repeating in substance
the interview he had already given out, "some flaw in our chain of
reasoning. This it will be necessary to review with the object of
revision. Every physical manifestation must have some physical and
definite cause; and this can be found if time enough is bestowed on it.
Often the process of elimination is the only method by which the truth can
be determined."
Darrow chuckled.
"Look out the process of elimination doesn't overtake you," he remarked.
Eldridge detailed the same reasoning, at greater length, to the men who
had employed him. These were very impatient. Business was being not merely
impeded, but destroyed. Their customers had no time for them; their
employees were in many cases leaving their jobs. They called in all the
help they could to assist Eldridge's speculations, but in the end they had
to fall back on the scientist as the best on the market. The case was not
left in his hands alone, however. After a meeting they offered a reward to
any one discovering and putting to an end the disconcerting phenomena.
"Here's where we make money, Jack, big money," observed Darrow when he
read this offer. "It'll be bigger before we get through. You and I can
have the little expedition to Volcano Island."
"Nothing suits me better," said Jack. "Are you sure we'll get it?"
"Sure," said Darrow.
Monsieur X had of course honored the waiting world with a message. It
followed the fifteen minutes of darkness:
"TO THE PEOPLE: I have been patient and have stayed my hand in order
that you may learn the vanity of your endeavor. Who are ye that ye
shall strive to take me? Vanity and foolishness is your portion. Now
ye know my power and ye will listen unto my words as to the words of
the Master. Ye must hunt down this man McCarthy and deliver him over
unto me. If every one of you gives himself to the task, lo! it is
quickly done. Bestir yourselves against the wrath to come!"
These events occupied the three days of the ordered exodus. The time was
further filled with rumor that ever grew more dire. Gradually business was
suspended entirely. Those who could not or would not go away stood about
talking matters over, and, as is always the case, matters did not improve
in the telling. The only activity in the city was that bent on seeking out
the abiding-place of Monsieur X.
Eldridge had now come to the conclusion that he had perhaps been mistaken
in confining his efforts to so small an area. In fact, further experiments
rendered hazy the arbitrary outlines formerly determined for the zone of
danger. At times Monsieur X answered well within the forty-five-mile mark;
at times somewhat beyond the end of the fifty-mile radius. Eldridge
immediately undertook a series of more delicate experiments by means of
indicators especially designed by him for the occasion. Once more the
little wireless office became the focus of repertorial attention.
"Our major premises we find still to be correct," announced Eldridge in
the coldly didactic manner characteristic of the man. "This unknown
operator is at a distance; and probably at a height. One indication we did
not take sufficiently into consideration--the fact that this instrument
alone is capable of communication with the instrument of this individual."
Percy Darrow for the first time began to show signs of attention. He
dropped the legs of his chair to the floor and leaned forward.
"That would indicate, gentlemen, that the instrument whose location we are
desirous of determining is of a peculiar nature. What that nature is we
have no means of determining accurately; but in conjunction with the fact
that our previous experiments failed to locate Monsieur X, we may adopt
the hypothesis that the wireless apparatus of that individual is not so
delicately responsive as the average. In other words, the zone within
which he may be found is in fact wider than we had supposed."
Darrow leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Eldridge
continued, explaining the means he had taken to determine more accurately
the exact location of Monsieur X.