The Cosmic Deflector, Page 4

else!"

  "Everything's in the devil's own mess!" sighed Hogarth. "It's hell onearth--people freezing to death right and left. By God! if I thought youweren't getting somewhere, I'd have you choked to death, just for thefun of it!"

  "Well, as a matter of fact," fabricated Dan, "the Super-Detectonic raysare a bit slow in getting into operation. But you can't expect miracles.If you'll give me a little more time--a few more days, maybe aweek--I'll promise you results."

  A cold sweat had broken out all over him before he had explained, inscientific detail, just why he might succeed if given another week.Thank God! they had not suspected! Or had they suspected?--and were theyonly toying with him? In any case, they had, wittingly or unwittingly,broken into his experiment at the crucial point. Would he ever againcatch the interrupted message?

  His fingers shaking with eagerness, he turned back to the radio. Buteven as he did so, the sneer on Wiley's retreating face hit him like ataunt.

  * * * * *

  After the first cruel shock, Lucile had realized just what was behindDan's disappearance. She not only was sure that he had been kidnapped byHogarth and his gang, but that any effort on her part to report to thepolice would result in her own immediate apprehension. Already herposition was perilous--might the conspirators not finish the job byseizing her at any moment? There was nothing to be done, therefore,except to change her residence, without informing anyone where she wasgoing. Then, in secret, she might plan to free her husband.

  At first, however, no tenable idea came to her. Meanwhile, through herold professors at Merlin University, where she had been an excellentstudent, she obtained access to the chemical laboratory, andexperimented day and night for means to increase the power of telurox.If it were possible to divert to the earth enough of the gravity thatshot past it into space, might the planet not even now be drawn back toits orbit?

  For weeks she labored, without results. She was merely one morediscouraged person in a discouraged world, when at length a startlingincident occurred. She had gone out for a hasty bite of lunch, and onher return she noticed that her assistant, young Dick Harson, waslistening to the radio, as he often did, while munching at a sandwich.

  "Well, anything new?" she asked, with a faint smile.

  "Nothing but a crazy noise, like a telegrapher breaking in on thebroadcast," he answered. "If it's still on, I'll show you."

  He switched the dial. "There it is!" he exclaimed, after a moment."Doesn't it sound just like a secret code?"

  At first she listened indifferently, her mind preoccupied; then gave astart, for she recognized something astoundingly familiar. Surely, itwas but an accident! It must be an accident that the succession of longand short syllables made sense, according to her old code with Dan!"Imprisoned by the Triumvirs! Follow my directions, and we may stillsave the world."

  Harson was astonished to see how eagerly the young woman sprang from herseat; and how she stood staring, as if she had seen a ghost.

  With the frenzy of a famished person finding food, she bent down tolisten. For a minute she remained there, leaning over the radio with apuzzled look, as if she could not quite make out the message. Then, toHarson's still greater amazement, she dashed to the laboratory's shortwave transmitter, and, beating together two bits of metal, began to sendout a series of long and short sounds, similar to the signals they hadheard.

  By this time the rat-tat-tat from the other end had ceased. It was morethan half an hour later, when she had paused to rest momentarily, thatfresh signals came over the radio. A flood of tears rushed to her eyesas she made out the words, "Lucile! Lucile--it is I!"

  * * * * *

  "Take this down, Lucy! Bismuth tetrachloride in combination with theborium salt I just mentioned will have a catalyzing effect on telurox,increasing its activity fifty per cent--more than enough to bring theearth back to its orbit. So my experiments indicate. Try it out just assoon as possible!"

  Such was one of the first messages that Dan tapped out to his wife,after a few explanatory interchanges.

  "For God's sake, hurry! At any minute those bandits may catch on!" themessage continued. "Let me hear the results as soon as you can! We'vejust got to succeed, and trap them!"

  Several days went by, while the signals still flashed back and forth.But Dan knew, as did Lucile also, that their time was short, very short.All too soon the week allowed him by Hogarth, Wiley and Malvine passed;all too soon the sinister three paid him another visit.

  They found him still working at the Deflector, from whose interior oncemore a strange rat-tat-tat was issuing.

  "Well," demanded Hogarth, "what success?"

  Dan looked up casually. "Oh," he declared, trying to appear unconcerned,"as much as could be expected."

  "What the devil does that mean?" snapped Wiley, projecting his ridgedhorse-face pugnaciously. "You promised results in a week. Have you hadthem? Can you put the earth back on its orbit?"

  "If you'll give me more time--"

  "More time, and we'll all be driven to our deaths!" stormed Malvine."Not another day! No, not another hour!"

  Wiley, who had been peering into the recesses of the Deflector, wasfumbling in an exploratory fashion at its fittings. Suddenly he pulled ahalf concealed lever, released a panel, and let out a low whistle. "Whatin blazes is this?"

  With an angry wrench, he drew out a mass of wires, bulbs and batteries."Looks to me like a radio transmitter!" he growled.

  All three men glared menace at Dan. He had foreseen and dreaded thisvery event. Confronted with the evidence, it would be folly to attempt adenial. His only course would be to try to turn suspicion in the leastdangerous channel.

  "Of course it's a radio transmitter," he admitted, quietly. "I'll befrank with you--I was hoping to find a chance to get away."

  Ominously the three conspirators closed about him. There was a nastyrumble in Wiley's voice as he decided. "Well then, you damned traitor,it's up to us to put you where you won't get away--not for many a goodlong day! We were cursed fools to place any trust in you!"

  Abruptly he motioned to the guards. "Solitary confinement again--and abread and water diet!" he barked. "Maybe that'll bring him around toreason!"

  But even as Dan, bound and handcuffed, was being dragged off, he hadgrim satisfaction in reflecting that his persecutors could not guess thereal purpose of his radio.

  * * * * *

  By the first of September, the earth was farther off its course thanever. Eleven million, twelve million, thirteen million miles! And everyday the distance widened. Would its orbit, like that of a periodiccomet, be lengthened into a long ellipse, taking it into the unthinkablecold beyond Jupiter or Saturn?

  This was the question in every one's mind, when on September 2 afull-page advertisement appeared in America's leading papers: "$50,000Reward! For invention to counteract the Cosmic Deflector! All reasonablepropositions given immediate personal attention. Hogarth, Wiley andMalvine."

  It was on the never-to-be-forgotten third of September that theadvertisers received their first applicant for the award. It was a youngwoman, of sad and earnest appearance; and the clerk who questioned her,perceiving that she had extraordinary information to offer, lost no timeabout summoning Hogarth.

  "My name is Landers--Mary Landers," she introduced herself. "I was alaboratory assistant of Daniel Holcomb when he invented telurox. I havebeen trying to increase its power, and have had remarkable success. Infact, I come to claim that fifty thousand."

  Hogarth gasped.

  The caller went on to explain how, as a result of a long series ofcomputations, she had mixed a small quantity of a certain bismuth saltwith the telurox; and how this had increased its activity by more thanfifty per cent. Fortunately, a huge Deflector had already been set up inthe laboratory, for experimental purposes.

  "Have you taken any observations today?" she finished. "If so, perhapsyou've noticed that the earth is fifty thousand miles nearer t
he sunthan yesterday."

  "By glory!" exclaimed Hogarth. "That's just what Lasson Observatoryreported, but I thought those fellows were all soused. Let's see! Got amodel machine to show me?"

  "Everything's over at Merlin University. If you'll just step into yourcar, we'll be there in twenty minutes."

  "You bet I will!" agreed Hogarth eagerly, as he reached for his hat. "Noharm looking at it!"

  The young woman started toward the door; then turned back, as if on anafter-thought. "Oh, by the way, don't your partners want to join us? I'dlike to give a real demonstration, which it would waste a lot of goodtime