The Earth-Tube (2 page)

Unfortunately, none of these theories proved fruitful though many books were written about them, both technical and popular, which were widely and eagerly read. Summing up the ideas then current, in his weighty volume entitled
The Trembling Earth,
Andrew Storch, the physicist, concluded as had many another person in that day, that “whatever the cause of these vibrations, it is clear that nothing can be done by human agency to check or avert the doom which they may portend. All that any of us may hope is that the manifestations, which are not yet of a truly dangerous character, will become no worse. Fortunately,” he added, “it appears likely that the trouble may pass of its own accord in a few months.”

While the accepted scientists of the Western World were laboring in the universities and research laboratories to bring out these confessions of ignorance and confusion, two men of a different type were at work in a quiet, secluded house on New York’s upper East Side. two men whose findings were later to shock and startle the world.

The elder man was Dr. Emile Stannard Scott, a savant who was hardly obscure, however much his opinions were held in disrepute by his fellows. At twenty-two Dr. Scott had been accounted a genius, and a monograph he had written at that age on the construction of the earth’s interior had gained him a worldwide repute. But his later theories proved too radical, even for the more daring of the other scientists of his day. At sixty his books on the same subject, written after years of further study, were received more often with ridicule than with respect.

The other man was King Henderson, still young, and thought by many to be a rising star in the scientific world.

He was tall, determined, and quiet, a man for whom the knotty problems of science were completely fascinating, but one who remembered that ideas must be translated into action to be of value in a workaday world. As he worked with Dr. Scott, it was King who devised the proofs for the elder man’s theories, who arranged the demonstrations, and who carried on many of the more intricate investigations. It was King also who turned the findings of the scientist to useful ends.

In the house there was only one other person, Anna Scott, the daughter of the scientist. She was herself a mathematician of some ability. These three shared the secrets of the private laboratory, and no others knew what they were working at throughout the long autumn when the earth trembled and the ground moved with its strange uneasiness. From the time when the earth-vibrations first assumed importance, Dr. Scott and King had not ceased to speculate on them. It was not until months later, when other scientists had virtually given the matter up as one too obscure for solution, that King checked up the last of his calculations, and Dr. Scott brought to an end the final test which proved his deductions to be correct.

One by one the facts had fallen into place. Like the building of an arch had the theories and the proofs grown and joined, falling inevitably into one pattern. They pointed to a conclusion that was inescapable.

“We’re through,” exclaimed King at length, when, amid the litter of the laboratory, the two men finally ceased their work. “And there’s what we were looking for. !”

As if to symbolize his meaning, he picked up from a table a small, double-pointed iron slug, a little larger than a bullet and somewhat similar to a bullet in shape. Dr. Scott nodded and sat down silently in a chair, looking at the scarred top of the laboratory table with an air of worry and puzzlement. The room was disordered and confused from the last hard hours of the work. Upon the wall a careful chart, tracing the history of the earth’s vibrations as they had grown from tiny, irregular tremblings to regular, powerful rhythmic movements, hung askew as if it had been much examined by men in haste. Chairs and tables were covered with crumpled sheets containing diagrams and endless calculations.

King sat down at the table opposite Dr. Scott, and the two men stared across it at each other for a moment, the elder trembling slightly at the strange import of the information which had come to his hand, the other pondering silently the dread events of the future, which had been forecast vaguely, but none the less surely, in the laboratory that morning.

“The proof is certainly there,” said Dr. Scott slowly. “Yet I hardly dare believe what our own efforts have brought to light!”

King arose, his face betraying the agitation which he was feeling.

“This is certainly no matter for the scientific magazines or the lecture platform,” he exclaimed. “This is for the Secretary of War!”

Dr. Scott smiled bitterly.

“And do you think the learned Secretary would believe it if you did tell him?” he asked. “I’ve had too much experience with public men to think that it would do any good to take this matter to the government.
now.”

King had been pacing the room. “Even so,” he replied firmly, “we must try it. We won’t ask the Secretary to believe anything for which he hasn’t seen the proof. Let him visit us in the laboratory, where we can show him anything it requires to satisfy his mind.”

The older scientist, still unconvinced, pondered the matter for a moment.

“I’ll write a letter inviting him,” he said at length. “But it will be your job to get it to his attention.”

“I don’t believe that will be difficult,” replied King. “The only necessary thing is haste. While we are wasting time in speculation here, who knows what may be going on in the center of the earth?”

III

Washington was then, as now, not only the capital city of the government of North America, but the seat as well of the whole Pan-American State. Caught up in the whirl of the pre-holiday social season, in a capital noted the world over for its brilliance and splendor, it is a regrettable fact that the officials of the State were among those in the country who appeared least concerned about the phenomena which had shaken the faith of scientists and inspired fear in the hearts of citizens and workers. Even in the month of December, when the curious manifestations had begun to recur again and again with regularity and increasing severity, there were many who considered them absolutely no business of the Pan-American Government and so conserved their energies for matters more befitting the ruling heads of the Western Hemisphere.

Individually, however, as private persons interested in all affairs which affected the public good, several of the more important officials had given at least passing notice to the earth-vibrations. One in particular, Dr. Philip Angell, the Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas, had even gone so far as to make certain independent mathematical calculations of his own in a vain attempt to explain the riddle. But Dr. Angell, despite his accomplishments in statecraft, was only an amateur mathematician at best and no scientist at all; his interest in the earth-vibrations only led him to dissipate precious energy in following out the fruitless mazes of the subject, and after a time he dropped it altogether to spend his time at better things.

It was toward the end of the last month of that memorable year that the Secretary’s interest in the subject was unexpectedly renewed by a happening which at the time seemed only annoying and of little moment. Busy in his office in Washington, he was going over the text of an address which he was scheduled to make that evening when an attendant came in silently and laid an unpretentious calling card upon the polished surface at his elbow. Impatiently the Secretary glanced up from his work. Upon the card, simply engraved, was the name of his caller.

Dr. Angell looked inquiringly at the attendant. “And who is this King Henderson?” he asked.

“A scientist, sir, I think he said. He has a message which he considers of great importance, sir. He was very insistent.”

“Has he an appointment?” queried the Secretary in a bored tone.

“Yes. it’s true he has, sir.”

“How did that happen?”

“Why, Senator Ellery arranged it yesterday, sir. You remember it, I’m sure.”

“Oh. Senator Ellery!”

The Secretary frowned, glanced at his work and dismissed the matter with a wave of his hand.

“Sorry. I can’t see him now. Some other time.”

The attendant mumbled and went out, and Dr. Angell once more gave his attention to his manuscript. The speech had to do with the well-being of the country, the spread of Pan-American influence and trade. Halfway down the sheet the pencil of the Secretary paused, while he reread a sentence. “A neat phrase, that,” he was thinking. “I must underline it.”

A scuffling sound in the ante-chamber reached his ears. In a moment, while the pencil paused in midair, he was again disturbed by the presence of the attendant in the room. With the attendant was another person. Exasperated, the Secretary swung around in his chair, glancing first at the aide, who was cringing and apologetic.

“I couldn’t keep him out, sir. He scuffled with me and brought me right in here with him. I. didn’t like to use a weapon. “

The tone of the War Secretary was acid.

“That’s what you carry it for, isn’t it?”

“Yes. sir!”

“Then next time. use it!”

The Secretary of War of the Pan-Americas stood up and glanced coldly at the stranger who had taken such liberties with the dignity of his office. He saw before him a tall and determined young man, a fellow who had about him a distinct air of courage and initiative. He returned the glance of the Secretary coolly and smiled.

“I am King Henderson,” he announced, without waiting for the official to speak. “Your attendant here . rather got in my way as I was coming in. I’m sorry I had to ruffle his feathers in that way, but it was more or less necessary. “

He smiled again as if the explanation had cleared the matter up. The Secretary, however, was still annoyed.

“This is an office of the Government of the Pan-Americas,” he declared severely, “and an important one. I shall ask you, young man, to leave the way you came, but more quietly.”

The visitor’s eyes grew serious. “I realize that I have committed a breach in forcing my way in here,” he replied. “I hope you will forgive my levity about it. The matter which brings me here, however, is of such importance not only to you but to the whole Western World that I would never have been forgiven by you or by the people of the Pan-Americas if I had not brought it to your attention, no matter how unconventionally.”

“Well. !”

The Secretary, somewhat mollified, hesitated between calling the capitol guards or permitting his visitor to continue. King, however, seized his opportunity and took the decision out of Dr. Angell’s hands by continuing, unbidden.

“It is about the shaking and jarring of the earth, which has so troubled the scientists of the world in the last few months,” he explained. “I bear a message from a scientist who has found the answer to the riddle and who has discerned in these manifestations a matter of such grave import that he considered it of the utmost importance to bring it to your attention before it is announced to the world.”

“And who is this scientist?” Dr. Angell’s tone betrayed a glimmer of interest.

“Dr. Emile Stannard Scott.”

The Secretary, cudgeling his brain to recall where he had heard the name of this scientist before, or what had been said of him, replied vaguely.

“Hmm. I see.”

“Do you know him?” asked King.

“Well. I rather think I’ve heard some one speak of him. At any rate, his name is well known.” The Secretary was again permitting his attention to wander to the papers on his desk, seeking some means of bringing the interview tactfully to a close. “Well,” he said at length, somewhat coldly, “I’m glad to hear that the matter is finally settled. and of course I’m glad to hear that the successful scientist is Dr. Scott.”

“But the point is,” said King, “that the matter is not settled, else we would never have troubled you about the matter at all. I have here a letter and an invitation from Dr. Scott. What he has written there, I think, explains itself.”

Dr. Angell took the missive suspiciously and broke the seal. The communication was couched in the characteristically blunt and direct language of the old scientist. It would cause no little amusement in official circles, the Secretary was thinking, if he should choose to exhibit it.

Dr. Scott had written that a matter affecting the safety of many thousands of persons had come to his attention, and he requested the Secretary to come for an interview at his laboratory in New York City without delay.

“You are yourself a student and a mathematician,” Dr. Scott had written, “and therefore you will probably be interested in what I have to show you in your personal, if not in your official capacity. Needless to say, my researches have convinced me beyond the shadow of a doubt that these tremors are not the result of malignant influences outside our planet, or changes, chemical or otherwise, at its center, in the sense used recently by persons who have been announcing such discoveries.’

“They are, on the contrary, the result of activities directed by human intelligence, and they mean serious, perhaps fatal, consequences to the people of the Western Hemisphere, if not of the whole civilized world.”

“Well,” said King, when he saw that the Secretary had finished, “will you come?”

The official smiled cynically and dropped the note among the litter of papers already on his desk.

“If you ask me,” he replied, ignoring the question, “I think Dr. Scott has become quite a little. melodramatic!”

He bowed politely, signifying that the interview was at an end. King smiled as two attendants appeared to escort him from the room.

“We will be expecting you at the laboratory,” he remarked. “I assure you that if this is melodrama, it is based upon such cold, hard facts that the whole world will be overwhelmed by them if you do not act very soon.”

IV

It is unlikely that the Secretary, who was a popular and busy man, much harassed by public obligations, would ever have acceded to the request of so obscure a savant, and one so obviously mad, had the matter not leaked, in some mysterious manner, to the newspapers. The public announcement that Dr. Scott, whose hold on the popular imagination was tremendous despite his professional standing, had made a sensational discovery with regard to the behavior of the earth and that he had sought to communicate it to Dr. Angell without success stirred up a mighty storm in the more excitable papers. However much the conservative and scientific journals were inclined to scoff, the newspapers that were most widely read expressed at first surprise, then annoyance, and finally downright anger at the Secretary’s neglect of the scientist’s invitation to the conference.