Ted led Roger and the professor through a side door, and out onto the
roof, which was illuminated by the silvery glory of the moon. A watchman
challenged them, then saluted respectfully as he recognized his
employer.
As they passed the hangars of Ted’s fleet of electroplanes, more
watchmen challenged and saluted.
Beyond this, they came to a square shed of steel, the heavy metal door
of which Ted unlocked with a key taken from his pocket. As his two
companions entered he closed the door after them, then pressed a light
switch.
“Here is my secret,” he said. “Isn’t she a little beauty?”
“I’ll say she is!” exclaimed Roger, looking admiringly at a craft of
silver gray metal about sixteen feet in length, gracefully shaped, and
decked over like an Esquimauan kayak, but with a centrally located
turret which projected above and below the hull. This turret was of
glass braced with the same silver-gray metal which formed the hull, and
within it could be seen a bewildering array of buttons and levers which
fronted a revolving upholstered seat. Projecting from the upper half of
the turret, pointing fore, aft, and to each side, were four tubes, each
of which ended in a glass lens. The lower turret was similarly equipped.
The hull itself was provided with four searchlights, set to sweep in all
directions.
Ted opened a heavily-gasketed door in the side of the upper turret, and
said:
“Look her over if you want to, while I put on my driving suit.”
“You’ve been keeping something from me, Ted,” said Roger reproachfully
while he and the professor admired the snug interior of the craft.
The young inventor laughed, as he opened a drawer and produced therefrom
a costume and helmet greatly resembling those worn by deep sea divers.
“Wanted to surprise you,” he said, stepping into the one-piece suit and
screwing down the clamps which closed the front. “Besides, you had too
much on your mind as it was.”
“But what is the purpose of the thing?” asked the professor, still
peering into the interior. “You don’t mean to tell me this craft will
fly without planes, rudder or propeller.”
“I think so,” replied Ted, “although if it does, this will be its maiden
flight.”
“But how?” persisted the professor.
“Atomotor,” said Ted, shortly, attaching his helmet to an affair which
slightly resembled a knapsack. “It will fly in the same manner as my
projectile flew to the moon, but more slowly, because I don’t dare give
it the terrific start imparted to my projectile.”
“Hardly,” smiled Roger. “It would be burned to a cinder. How far are you
going tonight?”
“Don’t know exactly,” replied Ted, “but if luck is with me I hope to
land on the moon before the middle of this week.”
“What!” gasped Roger. “You expect to go to the moon alone and unarmed?”
“Alone,” grinned Ted, “but not unarmed.” He had donned the helmet and
opened a glass slide in front for conversational purposes. After
adjusting the straps of the thing which resembled a knapsack, he took a
belt from the drawer and buckled it about his waist. Attached to the
belt were two holsters from which pistol-like handles projected.
“Do you expect to defend yourself against super-intelligences as seem to
exist on the moon, with a couple of pistols?” asked the professor.
“Hardly,” replied Ted. “The things you think are pistols are not pistols
at all, but pistol degravitors. They operate on the same principle as
the eight degravitors on my craft, but on a smaller scale.”
“You mean those eight tubes sticking out of the turret?” asked Roger.
“Exactly,” replied Ted.
“What deadly substance do they shoot?”
“They don’t shoot,” Ted answered with a smile. “They radiate—and when
their rays strike matter it disintegrates.”
“But how—”
“I can only take a minute to explain, as time is pressing,” replied Ted,
“but I’ll give you a demonstration very shortly. All matter is composed
of atoms which are, in turn, composed of protons and electrons, always
in motion, the latter whirling around the former as the planets whirl
around the sun. The force, therefore, which holds them in their orbits
is analogous to the force of gravity, hence I have applied the word
until a better one can be found. When I press the firing button of the
degravitor, it immediately releases two sets of invisible rays, cathode
and anode, both of which when properly pointed, strike the same object
at the same time, but at slightly different angles. The positively
charged protons are instantly torn from their atoms by the cathode rays,
while the negatively charged electrons are taken up by the anode rays.
As the two types of rays diverge, they are torn apart, and the matter
which they form immediately disintegrates and disappears.”
“Remarkable!” exclaimed the professor.
“Good head!” said Roger. “But how on earth did you manage to make all
these things without my knowing it?”
“Easily,” replied Ted. “I had the parts made separately in the shop and
assembled them here, myself. The hull is supposed to be the fuselage of
a new type of electroplane, to which the wings have not yet been
attached. The atomotor is assumed to be a model. I fitted it into the
hull, myself. As for the degravitors, I had the parts made, assembled
them, and fitted the larger ones into the turret, working nights in this
room.
“I might add that I have put through an order for ten thousand of the
small and a hundred thousand of the large degravitors. Directions for
assembling and firing them are in the safe, and you, Roger, will see to
it that our soldiers and combat planes are equipped with them as soon as
possible.
“But enough of explanations. I must go. If I do not return, you, Roger,
will know where to find all of my plans, including those for the
degravitors. Use them, and arrange for the defense as best you can,
without me.”
He entered the turret and switched on a tiny, inner light.
“I have your valuable translations, professor,” said Ted, “and hope that
I may be able to use them to advantage. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, and good luck,” echoed both men as he closed the front of his
helmet and slammed and fastened the door of the turret.
They watched him as he slowly elevated the upper forward degravitor.
When he pressed the button no visible rays shot forth, but in the metal
roof toward which it was aimed there suddenly appeared a clean cut hole
which was rapidly widened by circumscribing it with the degravitor rays.
The metal did not glow as if burned away, but simply disappeared with a
quick, scintillating flash wherever the rays touched it.
When the hole had been enlarged sufficiently, Ted waved a last adieu.
Then his craft rose gracefully, hung for a moment at a point about a
thousand feet above the roof, and disappeared with a burst of terrific
speed, traveling in a direction which might be reckoned about 80 degrees
to the east of the moon in the plane of the ecliptic.