When Worlds Collide (When Worlds Collide 1)

Again cheering broke tumultuously through the hall. Again Hendron stood quietly until it subsided. “This evening we will meet again. At that time I shall read to you from the diary which James kept during the past thirty days. I have skimmed some of its pages. It is a remarkable document. I must prepare you by saying, my friends, that those of our fellow human beings who have not perished, have reverted to savagery, almost without notable exception.”

A hush followed those words. Then Hendron stepped from the platform, and a din of excited conversation filled the room. The scientist stopped to speak to three or four people, then came over to his daughter. He seemed excited.

“Eve,” he said, “I want you and Drake to come to the office right away.”

Bronson and Dodson were already there when they arrived.

A dozen other men joined them; and last to appear was Hendron himself. Every one was standing, and Hendron invited them to sit down. It was easy to perceive his excitement now. His surpassingly calm blue eyes were fiery. His cheeks concentrated their color in two red spots. He commenced to speak immediately.

“My friends, the word I have to add to my announcement in the hall is of stupendous importance!

“When we took off Ransdell’s clothes, we found belted to his body, and heavily wrapped, a note, a map, and a chunk of metal. You will remember, doubtless, that Ransdell was once a miner and a prospector. His main interest had always been diamonds. And his knowledge of geology and metallurgy is self-taught and of the practical sort.”

Bronson, unable to control himself, burst into speech. “Good God, Hendron! He found it!”

The scientist continued impassively: “The eruptions caused by the passage of the Bodies were of so intense a nature that they brought to earth not only modern rock, but vast quantities of the internal substance of the earth—which, as you know, is presumably of metal, as the earth’s total density is slightly greater than that of iron. Ransdell noticed on the edge of such a flow a quantity of solid unmelted material. Realizing that the heat surrounding it had been enormous, he secured specimens. He found the substance to be a metal or natural alloy, hard but machineable. Remembering our dilemma here in the matter of lining for the power tubes for the Space Ship, he carefully carried back a sample—protecting it, in fact, with his life.

“My friends,”—Hendron’s voice began to tremble—“for the past seventy-five minutes this metal has withstood not only the heat of an atomic blast, but the immeasurably greater heat of Professor Kane’s recently developed atomic furnace. We are at the end of the quest!”

Suddenly, to the astonishment of his hearer, Hendron bowed his head in his arms and cried like a woman.

No one moved. They waited in respect, or in a gratitude that was almost hysterical. In a few moments Hendron lifted his face.

“I apologize. These are days when nerves are worn thin. But all of you must realize the strain under which I have labored. Perhaps you will forgive me. I am moved to meditate on the almost supernatural element of this discovery. At a time when nature has doomed the world, she seems to have offered the means of escape to those who, let us hope and trust, are best fitted to save her most imaginative gesture of creation—mankind.”

Hendron bowed his head once more, and Eve came wordlessly to his side.

* * *

Hendron stood before an audience of nearly a thousand persons. It was a feverish audience. It had a gayety mingled with solemnity such as, on a smaller scale, overwhelmed the thoughtful on a night in November in 1918 when the Armistice had been signed.

Hendron bowed to the applause.

“I speak to you to-night, my friends, in the first full flush of the knowledge that your sacrifices and sufferings have not been in vain. Ransdell has solved our last tec

hnical problem. We have assured ourselves by observation that life on the planet-to-be will be possible. My heart is surging with pride and wonderment when I find myself able to say: man shall live; we are the forefathers of his new history.”

The wild applause proclaimed the hopes no one had dared declare before.

“But to-night I wish to talk not of the future. There is time enough for that. I wish to talk—or rather to read—of the present.” He picked up from a small table the topmost of a number of ordinary notebooks. “I have here James’ record of the journey that brought us salvation. I cannot read you all of it. But I shall have it printed in the course of the next few days. I anticipate that printing merely because I understand your collective interest in the document.

“This is the first of the seven notebooks James filled. I shall read with the minimum of comment.”

He opened the book. He read:

“‘August 16th. To-night Ransdell, Vanderbilt and I descended at six o’clock precisely on a small body of water which is a residue in a bed of Lake Michigan. We are lying at anchor about a mile from Chicago.

“‘Our journey has been bizarre in the extreme. Following south along what was once the coast of Lake Michigan, we flew over scenes of desolation and destruction identical with those described after our first reconnaissance. In making this direct-line flight, it was forced upon our reluctant intelligence that the world has indeed been wrecked.

“‘The resultant feeling of eeriness reached its quintessence when we anchored here. Sharply outlined against the later afternoon sun stood the memorable skyline of the metropolis—relatively undamaged! With an emotion of indescribable joy, after the hours of depressive desolation, I recognized the Wrigley Building, the Tribune Tower, the 333 North Michigan Avenue Building, and others. My companions shouted, evidently sharing my emotions.

“‘We had landed on the water from the north. We anchored near shore and quickly made our way to land. We exercised certain precautions, however. All of us were armed. Lots were drawn to determine whether Ransdell or Vanderbilt would remain on guard beside the ship. I was useless in that capacity, as I would be unable to fly it in case of emergency. It was agreed that the lone guard was to take off instantly upon the approach of any persons whatever. Our ship was our only refuge, our salvation, our life-insurance.

“‘Vanderbilt was elected to remain. Ransdell and I started off at once toward the city. The pool on which we lay was approximately a mile in diameter and some two hundred feet below the level of the city. We started across the weird water-bottom. Mud, weeds, wrecks, débris, puddles, cracks, cliffs and steep ascents impeded our progress. But we reached the edge of what had been a lake, without mishap. The angle of our ascent had concealed the city during the latter part of our climb.

“‘Our first close view was had as we scrambled to the top of a sea-wall. The streets of the metropolis stretched before us—empty. The silence of the grave, of the tomb. Chicago was a dead city.

“‘We stood on the top of the wall for a few minutes. We strained our ears and eyes. There was nothing. No light in the staring windows. No plume of steam on the lofty buildings. We started forward together. Unconsciously, we had both drawn our revolvers.