Arthur Cheney Train

“ Could it be that a human being was inside, or was he holding the empty shell of the armor? Then, suddenly he felt her hand clutch his arm, and, remembering the diminished gravity on the moon, scrambled up the ladder with her clinging to his shoulders. It was not a moment too soon. For, as they closed the outer door of the air-lock, everything turned black and she lost consciousness. She came to, a few seconds later, as Bennie, having unscrewed her helmet, yanked it from her shoulders and dragged her inside the chart-room—pale, but still alive. ”

“ There was now no sensation of movement in the car, which seemed, as it were, to be hanging motionless in space. Like the inhabitants of the earth, who are being carried through the universe at a speed of sixty-eight thousand miles an hour, the travelers were unconscious of their transportation.
"How do you mean—weigh nothing at all?" demanded Burke. "Isn't the earth attracting us still?"
"Of course," retorted Bennie, "the earth is still attracting us, but its only effect will be gradually to reduce our velocity."
"Oh dear, I certainly feel very queer!" suddenly declared Rhoda. ”

“ Like the shadow of a lost soul, he would have followed the Ring in its journey among the stars—since, moving at the same speed as the machine through space at the moment of his fall, there would have been nothing to alter his relation to it, and, like a satellite—a true satellite, indeed—he would have flown along beside, or after it, until the tractor was started again and he had been left behind alone in the abyss of space! ”

“ The air-lock having emptied itself of its contents, Atterbury now released and opened the outer door and lowered a small metal landing-stage, from which hung the steel ladder. Then, with some difficulty, owing to the clumsiness of their new garments, the two men climbed down upon the tufa-like surface of the moon, while Rhoda remained watching them curiously from above. Apart from the puffing-out of the rubber suit, she experienced no new sensations, for she breathed with perfect ease, and the sunlight, falling full upon her body, warmed her through and through. ”

“ The evolution of defense against nature had been steady and progressive, from the stone age, when prehistoric man sought shelter in caves from the pelting hailstones, to the present one in which they were about to whip out of its course a planet that was running wild through the solar system.
There in front of her, just outside the deadlight through which she was gazing, and silhouetted against the shining disk of the asteroid, was that terrible weapon, the generator of the disintegrating ray. In a few minutes, it would be hurling its mysterious beam across the void of space. ”

“ The earth stays always in the same spot in the sky, just where we see it now as a huge crescent near the sun. As the sun sinks toward the horizon, the earth waxes like the moon seen from the earth, reaching its half-stage at sunset. Then, through the long lunar night it grows, until, at seven of our days after sundown, it becomes full. Then it wanes again, reaching the half at sunrise a week later. If we had landed on the other side of the moon, the earth would have remained invisible. ”

“ Where, before, the earth had been, there now appeared the stupendous disk of the full moon.
At the same moment, Burke uttered an exclamation of fear.
"We're all out of kilter!" he cried. "I was looking down through the observation-window at the earth, and—all of a sudden it wasn't there!"
"The Ring is evidently slowly turning over," stammered Bennie. "If our tractor were not running, it wouldn't matter, but our direction must now be changing from moment to moment. We may have been captured or pulled out of our course by the moon! ”

“ Perhaps it was only a short distance away—just there, or there—its beckoning tripod hidden from her feverish gaze by the moon's curvature. Only ten minutes left of life! How should she spend them? In vain rushes for escape, like a dying bull? That would be fruitless. Better to remain where her friends might perchance see her through their glasses. The valve chirruped almost inaudibly. Only a few minutes more—eight—seven! She must signal, wave something—her handkerchief! Mechanically she felt for her pocket! Only the hard surface of the vacuum armor. ”

“ By this time, both of them could see plainly the details of the machine which, constructed apparently of polished steel, flashed dizzily in the sunlight as it shot over the golf-course. It was evidently a hollow cylinder shaped like an anchor-ring or life-preserver, about seventy-five feet in diameter, with a tripod superstructure carrying, at its apex, a thimble-shaped device, the open mouth of which pointed downward through the middle of the machine. A faint yellow glare—a sort of luminous vapor—hovered below this gigantic car, which sailed through the air with a deep humming sound. ”

“ We can land! Burke, shut down the power quick, and stand by to pick up your moorings!"
"I'm all ready," answered Burke, throwing over the rheostat that controlled the current.
The Ring was hanging over a vast rocky plain, pockmarked with small craters, furrowed with crevasses, and bristling with jagged ridges and grotesque turrets and pinnacles. In the glare of the sun, it shone dazzlingly white—like snow—so that it hurt their eyes, and Rhoda was forced to turn hers away.
"How high up are we?" inquired Bennie.
"The manometer doesn't register," answered Burke. "There can't be any atmosphere. ”

“ If anything went wrong, and your engine ran down, or something happened to your machinery, you might find yourself caught between the gravitation of the moon and of the earth and whirling round and round forever through the universe. ”

“ What would the effect be upon the earth's orbit, its climatic conditions, and its life? What might happen at the worst, the mind of man refused to conjecture. But it was admitted that, beyond peradventure, the best that could be hoped for would be that the asteroid itself might suffer annihilation—in which event, its shattered carcass would lie smothering a thousand miles of the earth's surface, changing the latter's axis and sending it staggering along a new orbit under conditions which might render human life upon the globe impossible. ”

“ Gradually, the luminous discharge from Medusa increased in brilliancy until the planet became a ball of fire. Giant sheets of yellow light, like aurora streamers, drove off from its surface as the deadly ray bored against it until the asteroid resembled a vast volcanic eruption. Under the fierce blast from the Ring, its surface was melting away, and driving out into space a glowing mass of incandescent gas. ”

“ Directly below lay the huge circular crater of Copernicus, frosty in the sun's light, brilliant streaks radiating from its cone. Inside the circumference of the extinct volcano, and parallel to it, was a smaller crater, at the bottom of which glowed several dazzling points, which Rhoda knew must be other cones. To the south stretched away vast grayish-yellow, lava-strewn plains. Elsewhere, over the visible surface of the moon, were distributed continents of highly irregular formation, with strangely indented coastlines, rivaling in their conformation those of Norway and Sweden. ”

“ Careful observation, supplemented by independent calculations, demonstrated beyond peradventure that the asteroid Medusa would certainly pass through the head of the comet, which now blazed nightly in the sky like the beam of a huge search-light. Never had such a meteor been known before, for it surpassed in brilliancy and size the famous comet of 1811. All night long the streets of every American city were filled with crowds of people watching the huge fire-ball, the diameter of which appeared to the terrestrial observer to be nearly half that of the moon itself. ”

“ Could life continue after such a shock, which would be greater by ten thousand times than that of the most violent earthquake known in the history of man?
And in the midst of all this rumpus, Professor Benjamin Hooker suddenly stated that he purposed going out in the Flying Ring to meet the asteroid in its fall through space, attack it with the famous lavender ray that had disrupted the Atlas mountains, and either deflect it from its course so that it should not strike the earth at all or blow Medusa into smithereens! ”

“ Tassifer suddenly recalled the absence of her niece Rhoda, and, thrusting her head out of the window, had anxiously inquired of the world in general and of Bentham in particular what could have become of her.
"How should I know?" snapped back her husband, whose attention had thus, much against his will, been directed back to earth again. "How should I know? She went back to that machine, and I suppose she can't get through the crowd."
"Well, I wish I knew!" retorted his wife. "Some people don't have the slightest sense of responsibility." ”

“ I should so like to see a human being again!"
Burke laughed, and the Ring dipped like a swallow and skimmed along only half a mile above the surface of the Atlantic. Soon the liner was just in front of them, and they veered to avoid striking her with the ray. Her decks swarmed black with people, and, through the glasses, sailors could be seen working at the life-boats.
"I wonder what they think we are!" exclaimed Rhoda, looking for Burke, who had left his post.
"He's going to wireless them not to be afraid. They're precious near a panic down there," explained Bennie. ”

“ Looking up through the window above, he saw the greenish globe of the asteroid nearly overhead. "Hello," he commented, as he focused his telescope; "it's been coming on fast while we were camping on the moon! All the surface markings are perfectly visible through the glass. And every minute they're growing more distinct."
"What does it look like?" asked Rhoda.
"Looks more like an English walnut than anything else," he mumbled. "There's a funny big spot—perfectly smooth—right in the center of the disk, and hundreds of queer ridges and furrows running from it in every direction." ”

“ Better come down here and take a look."
"But how shall I get down?" gasped Rhoda, in great embarrassment. "What on earth shall I do!"
"Not what you do on earth," grinned Bennie. "Grab a life-line and pull yourself down. We're in the center of the universe—so to speak."
Together they slowly drew themselves back to the chart-table by means of the clothes-lines and then to the deadlight.
The glare from the tractor had now entirely disappeared, and the Ring swam in the Stygian darkness of space. Their first impression was that the earth had vanished. ”

“ Hooker pursed his lips into a whistle.
"What do you really suppose will happen?" he inquired.
"No one can tell," replied, the astronomer. "The collision might check Medusa in its orbit and cause it to fall into the sun. In falling, it might cross the earth's path and strike us—it might mean the end of the world!"
"Gee whiz!" ejaculated Professor Hooker. "When is this interesting event going to take place?"
"I calculate that the comet and the asteroid will come into collision at three o'clock on the morning of the eighteenth of next month. You can come over and see it if you like." ”

“ Thornton did not question the ability of Hooker and his comrades to navigate space in the great machine, or the power of the lavender ray to destroy Medusa or any other heavenly body. What he feared was the unknown factor of chance, always arising when an experiment is hazarded under new conditions. What did they know of space? Would their liquid-air tanks accomplish their purpose? What would be the effect of the complex and opposing forces of attraction to which, once outside the sphere of the earth's gravitation, this new man-made meteor would be exposed? ”