Within twenty-four hours of the destruction of the Mountains of Atlas by
the Flying Ring and the consequent flooding of the Sahara, the official
gazettes and such newspapers as were still published announced that the
Powers had agreed upon an armistice and accepted a proposition of
mediation on the part of the United States looking toward permanent
peace. The news of the devastation and flood caused by this strange and
terrible dreadnought of the air created the profoundest apprehension and
caused the wildest rumours, for what had happened in Tunis was assumed
as likely to occur in London, Paris, or New York. Wireless messages
flashed the story from Algiers to Cartagena, and it was thence
disseminated throughout the civilized world by the wireless stations at
Paris, Nauen, Moscow, and Georgetown.
The fact that the rotation of the earth had been retarded was still a
secret, and the appearance of the Ring had not as yet been connected
with any of the extraordinary phenomena surrounding it; but the
newspaper editorials universally agreed that whatever nation owned and
controlled this new instrument of war could dictate its own terms. It
was generally supposed that the blasting of the mountain chain of
Northern Africa had been an experiment to test and demonstrate the
powers of this new demoniacal invention, and in view of its success it
did not seem surprising that the nations had hastened to agree to an
armistice, for the Power that controlled a force capable of producing
such an extraordinary physical cataclysm could annihilate every capital,
every army, every people upon the globe or even the globe itself.
The flight of the Ring machine had been observed at several different
points, beginning at Cape Race, where at about four A.M. the
wireless operator reported what he supposed to be a large comet
discharging earthward a diagonal shaft of orange-yellow light and moving
at incredible velocity in a southeasterly direction. During the
following day the lookout on the _Vira_, a fishguard and scout cruiser
of the North Atlantic Patrol, saw a black speck soaring among the clouds
which he took to be a lost monoplane fighting to regain the coast of
Ireland. At sundown an amateur wireless operator at St. Michael's in the
Azores noted a small comet sweeping across the sky far to the north.
This comet an hour or so later passed directly over the cities of
Lisbon, Linares, Lorca, Cartagena, and Algiers, and was clearly
observable from Badajoz, Almadén, Seville, Cordova, Grenada, Oran,
Biskra, and Tunis, and at the latter places it was easily possible for
telescopic observers to determine its size, shape, and general
construction.
Daniel W. Quinn, Jr., the acting United States Consul stationed at
Biskra, who happened to be dining with the abbot of the Franciscan
monastery at Linares, sent the following account of the flight of the
Ring to the State Department at Washington, where it is now on file.
[See Vol. 27, pp. 491-498, with footnote, of Official Records of the
Consular Correspondence for 1915-1916.] After describing general
conditions in Algeria he continues:
We had gone upon the roof in the early evening to look at the sky
through the large telescope presented to the Franciscans by Count
Philippe d'Ormay, when Father Antoine called my attention to a
comet that was apparently coming straight toward us. Instead,
however, of leaving a horizontal trail of fire behind it, this
comet or meteorite seemed to shoot an almost vertical beam of
orange light toward the earth. It produced a very strange effect on
all of us, since a normal comet or other celestial body that left a
wake of light of that sort behind it would naturally be expected to
be moving upward toward the zenith, instead of in a direction
parallel to the earth. It looked somehow as if the tail of the
comet had been bent over. As soon as it came near enough so that we
could focus the telescope upon it we discovered that it was a new
sort of flying machine. It passed over our heads at a height no
greater than ten thousand feet, if as great as that, and we could
see that it was a cylindrical ring like a doughnut or an anchor
ring, constructed, I believe, of highly polished metal, the inner
aperture being about twenty-five yards in diameter. The tube of the
cylinder looked to be about twenty feet thick, and had circular
windows or portholes that were brilliantly lighted.
The strangest thing about it was that it carried a superstructure
consisting of a number of arms meeting at a point above the centre
of the opening and supporting some sort of apparatus from which the
beam of light emanated. This appliance, which we supposed to be a
gigantic searchlight, was focused down through the Ring and could
apparently be moved at will over a limited radius of about fifteen
degrees. We could not understand this, nor why the light was thrown
from outside and above instead of from inside the flying machine,
but the explanation may be found in the immense heat that must have
been required to generate the light, since it illuminated the entire
country for fifty miles or so, and we were able to read without
trouble the fine print of the abbot's rubric. This Flying Ring moved
on an even keel at the tremendous velocity of about two hundred
miles an hour. We wondered what would happen if it turned turtle,
for in that case the weight of the superstructure would have
rendered it impossible for the machine to right itself. In fact,
none of us had ever imagined any such air monster before. Beside it
a Zeppelin seemed like a wooden toy.
The Ring passed over the mountains toward Cabes and within a short
time a volcanic eruption occurred that destroyed a section of the
Atlas Range. [Mr. Quinn here describes with considerable detail the
destruction of the mountains.] The next morning I found Biskra
crowded with Arabs, who reported that the ocean had poured through
the passage made by the eruption and was flooding the entire desert
as far south as the oasis of Wargla, and that it had come within
twelve miles of the walls of our own city. I at once hired a donkey
and made a personal investigation, with the result that I can report
as a fact that the entire desert east and south of Biskra is
inundated to a depth of from seven to ten feet and that the water
gives no sign of going down. The loss of life seems to have been
negligible, owing to the fact that the height of the water is not
great and that many unexpected islands have provided safety for the
caravans that were _in transitu_. These are now marooned and waiting
for assistance, which I am informed will be sent from Cabes in the
form of flat-bottomed boats fitted with motor auxiliaries.
Respectfully submitted,
D. W. QUINN, Jr.,
Acting U. S. Consul.
The Italian cruiser _Fiala_, which had been carried one hundred and
eighty miles into the desert on the night of the eruption, grounded
safely on the plateau of Tasili, but the volcanic tidal wave on which
she had been swept along, having done its work, receded, leaving too
little water for the _Fiala's_ draft of thirty-seven feet. Four launches
sent out in different directions to the south and east reported no sign
of land, but immense quantities of floating vegetable matter, yellow
dust, and the bodies of jackals, camels, zebras, and lions. The fifth
launch after great hardships reached the seacoast through the new
channel and arrived at Sfax after eight days.
The mean tide level of the Mediterranean sank fifteen inches, and the
water showed marked discoloration for several months, while a volcanic
haze hung over Northern Africa, Sicily, Malta, and Sardinia for an even
longer period.
Though many persons must have lost their lives the records are
incomplete in this respect; but there is a curious document in the
mosque at Sfax touching the effect of the Lavender Ray. It appears that
an Arab mussel-gatherer was in a small boat with his two brothers at the
time the Ring appeared above the mountains. As they looked up toward the
sky the Ray flashed over and illuminated their faces. They thought
nothing of it at the time, for almost immediately the mountains were
rent asunder and in the titanic upheaval that followed they were all
cast upon the shore, as they thought, dead men. Reaching Sfax they
reported their adventures and offered prayers in gratitude for their
extraordinary escape; but five days later all three began to suffer
excruciating torment from internal burns, the skin upon their heads and
bodies began to peel off, and they died in agony within the week.