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7 4 ‘.V Hie Banwell rWf- g. C* Tkwndty, 15,1934 v the Twilight of Doom The world waited • •. hushed, fear fully expectant • •. as death blasted from the skies, boiled up from the bowels of the earth. What did people do as they stared into the relentless face of destruc tion? What happened on that last terrible day when everybody knew that the hour of doom had struck? Edwin Balmer and PhilipWylie will tell you in the amazing story, “WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE.” Read This First Installment and Fnttow It Through to the Smashing Climax Sense *) «. B.I1 WNU I Blakt aiad Edwirv Mmm Cfyn)lit 67 l^killfWyl WNIT Service CHAPTER The secret Itself waystHl aafft. Was clear that the public could not yet have learned It No; the nature Of the tremendous and terrific Discov ery remained locked In the breasts of the men who had made It. No one had broken ao badly under the burden of It that he had let slip any actual de tail* of what had been learned. But the fact that there was a se cret, of Incomparable importance, was out David Ransdell received plenty of proof of It, as he stood at the Kuropa's rail, and the radiograms from shore •were brought to him. He had had sev en, all of the same sort within the hour; and here was another. The first, arriving less than an hour ago, offered him one thousand dollars for first and exclusive Information— to be withheld from all others for twelve hours—of what he carried In his black box. It was signed by the most famous newspaper In New York. Within ten minutes the offer had Jumped to five thousand dollars, made by another piper. Plainly, the knnwl. . edge that there was a secret of utmoat- - discovery has been made—a discovery which. If confirmed In all details. Is of incomparable consequence. I tell you that at the outset, itansdell, cause 1 must refrain for the present from telling you anything else about It ” Dave felt his skin prickling with a strange, excited awe. There was no doubt that this man—Lord Rhondln, Industrialist, -financier -and conspicu ous patron of science—thoroughly be lieved what he said; behind the eyes which looked at Dave Ransdell was awe at knowledge which he dared not reveal. But Dave asked boldly, “Why?” “Why can’t I tell you?” Lord Rhon- din repeated, and looked at Bronson. “Why not tell him?” Bronson asked. * But Rhondln went abruptly to busi ness: “We asked leave for you, Rans dell, because I have heard you are a particularly reliable man. It Is essen tial that material connected with the discovery be delivered in New York city at the earliest practicable mo ment. You are both an expert pilot who can make the best speed, and probably true; but so very much is Involved that It would be most disas trous If even a rumor of what we be lieve we have discovered - were given out For that reason, among others, we cannot confide It even to you; but we must charge you personally to convey this box to Doctor Hendrou, who Is the scientific consultant of the Universal Electric and Power corpora- tlon In New York. He Is now in Pasa dena, but will be In New York upon your arrival. Time is vital—the great est speed, that Is, consistent with rea sonable safety. You should reach Doc tor Hendron not. later than a week from Monday. You may return, then. IvTsTk tlh^the other hand”— he paused as crowded considerations heaped in his mind, —“you may be Indifferent as to where you are.” “On the earth,” added Professor Bronson. “Of course—on the earth,” Lord Rhondln accepted. ' *“I would go myself, Ransdell, you understand,” Bronson then proceeded. ■y place, for the present, eer tainly Is here. I mean, of course, at the observatory. ... It Is possible. Ransdell, In spite of precautions which have been taken, that jome word of the Bronson discovery mav get out. Your errand may be suspected. If it is, you know nothing—nothing, you understand? You must answer no in quiry from any source. None—none whatever!" Until now, nothing had happened to recall these emphatic cautions; but now, something was out. A boy was approaching with another radio: “Twenty thousand dollars In cash paid to you if you grant first and ex clusive Interview regarding the Bron son discovery to this paper.” — It was signed by the man who, an hour ago, had opened the bidding with one thousand dollars. Dave crumpled It and tossed it over board. If the man who sent it had been In that trophy-room with Bronson and Lord Rhondln, he would have He put his hand on her shoulder, and turned her away from the pano* rama of the city. “Is there some real trouble, Eve?" he Inquired gently. “No; there’s no trouble, Tony," “Then there’s somebody else ahead of me—Is there? Somebody perhaps in Pasadena?” “N’ohddjTTn Pasadena—or anywhere else, Tony." “Then what Is It, tonight? What’v changed you? “You’re not listening to me even now. You’re thinking Instead.” “What do you want me to do?^ . ‘Feel P "Oh, I can do that, too.” “1 know, then why don’t you—and stop thinking?” “Walt I Not now, Tony. . . . D* you suppose that’s the Europa?” “Why do you care? See here, Eve, is there anything In that newspaper story your father and you have been denying all afternoon—that something unusual lg up between *11 the bla scl- entific leaders?” “There’s always something up, In science,” Eve evaded. . . . The doors were flung wide open. In the drawing room a half dozen pe<> Importance had spread swiftly 1 The thrilling and all-absorbing fact of It was that David Ransdell himself fid not know what he carried which could become of such amazing concern. He was merely the courier who trans ported and guarded the secret. Those who had entrusted It to him knew that be would never violate his word. I^east of all, would he sell out to others. Moreover (If curiosity tried him be yond his strength) he had Professor Bronson’s word for it that the con tents of the box would be utterly meaningless to him. Only a few, with very special training, could make out the meaning. Cole Hendron In New York—Dr. Cole Hendron, the physicist—could make It out. Indeed, he could 'deter mine It more completely than any oth er man alive. That was why Dave Ransdell, from South Africa, was bound for New York; he was bringing the box to Cole Hendron, who, after be had satisfied himself of the sig nificance of Its contents, would take the courier Into his confidence. Dave gripped the rail with aggravat ed impatience for arrival in the city. He wondered, but with secondary In terest only, under the circumstances, what it would be like in America. It was the native land of his mother; but .David had never so much as seen Its shores before. For he was a South African—his father, an Englishman who had once ranched In Montana, had married- a-M«nt*na-girl *nd had taken - her to the Transvaal. Dave had been born at Pretoria, schooled there, and had run away from school to go to war, — He had been summoned at night to the great mansion, of Lord Rhondln, near Capetown.' Lord Rhondln him self, a big, calm, practical-minded man, received him; and with Lord Rhondln was a tall, wiry man of forty-odd, with a quick and nervous manner. “Professor Bronson,” Lord Rhondln said. Introducing Ransdell. “The astronomer?" Dave asked as they shook hands. “Exactly,” said Lord Rhondln. Bronson did not speak at all then, or for several minutes. He merely grasped Dave’s hand with nervous tightness and stared at him while he was thinking, patently, of something else—something, Dave guessed, which recently had ‘ allowed him too little •leep^ “Sit down," Lord Rhondln bade. They were in It big, secluded room given to trophies of the hunt Animal skins covered the floor; and lion and buffalo and elephant heads looked down from the walla, their glass eyes glinting in the light which was re flected, also, by festoons of shining knives and spears. "We sent for yon, Rapsdell,” said Lard Rhondln, '“because a vary strange pie continued to dance. Another group surrounded the punch bowl. Some one stepped out and asked Eve to dance, and she went in with him. Tony Drake wandered in from the terrace. An arm encircled his broad shoul ders. “Hello, Tony. Say—give me the low-down on what shoi the market to b—1 today.” Tony frowned; his eyes were follow ing Eve. “Why do you compliment me with thinking I may know?” “"It’s something happened in Africa, l hear. Anyway, the African cables were carrying It But what could hap pen down there to shoot h—1 out of us this way? Another discovery of gold? A mountain of gold that wouM make gold so cheap it would unsettK everything?” “Cheap gold would make stocla dear—not It must have Irritated tbe great men and Women of all times to bear tbem- /selvea merred to— Don’t Believe as they often were in Dretmt “f* “ dr ” !I, ' r, f “ this world bad de pended on dreamers to build it its pop ulation would still consist of wild tribes, always fighting and sometimes eating each other. Such progress as the people of the earth have achieved—and It is as noth ing compared to what they will achieve —was not the result .of any visions from the sky. The men and women who had brains and used them are the men and women who have taken the race out of bond age and built up civilizations. The great poets of tbe earth are said to be dreamers. v But do bard can envision progress in his sleep. No poet can even put a good lilting rhyme togethei 1 unless all his faculties are centered dh his IbET true. Mr. Longfellow very wisely said. In a verse that was fat from a dream: The great men reached heights by and kept Were not attained ... But they while their cotnp&olene Were by sudden flight, com pan tone stent tolling upward in the night. No dreams for those men, and no dreams for the men and women of to day who, by thetr thinking power, are contributing steadily to the spread of civilization. I know that it Is pleasant to Indulge In visions, and that many people spend a great deal of time that way. But I also know, from my reading and from my own observation that if The Spy Plot That Failed I T WAS daring the early daya of the World war that a rough-looking man, who posed as a Belgian, began to frequent one of the branchee of the Carnegie library In Pittsburgh. He was poorly dressed, wore a acrag- gly beard and seemed to bare all of the time In tbe world. Usually he went to the reference de partment of'the library, and spent hours in reading books that had ref erence to America. He paid parti ro ar attention to the maps and one night was seen to be tracing tome of these from one of the geographical works In the library. Miss Frances Langfltt, the ashlstant brarlan, noticed the man, and her suspicions were aroused. So while the fellow spied around the shelves tbe young woman did a tttle spying on her own account NIgh t aftef night she sir there with a green shade over her eyes appar ently engrossed in her work, but In reality keeping tabs upon the Belgian who was not a Belgian. One night she watched him reploce a h™ 1 * the S h * lf . fl nH wh*n ha hail departed she hastened over to that part of the library and obtained pos session of this particularjoboefc. It contained a coastwtm 1 map, and gave evidence of having hen traced. Before the next day bad dawned the patriotic young woman had in formed the Department of Justice of her suspicions of the man who had been visiting the library. Operative Henry—that will ban ta M the thinking faculty isn’t set to work and kept at work, no amount of fancy will be worth the while. • •••••• —New York. _todaj la «a>4 to be _g_ = dream city, and so It doubtless Is to people, who view the Slerra-like sky line as they approach It by land or water. -• But if you could have seen tbe archi tects and builders tolling eagerly for years before anyone of those vast structures began to rise from the ground, you would know how little they dream and how hard they work. If you call it dreaming to tit down every night in the week end think out complicated plan* for building anything, from • business to a stool and stone Alad din's palace, well end good. But it won't be any dream. It will be tedious, mind wearing, mental labor. The only dreams I know anything about which may really be called such are dreams of empire. And empires so founded uanally do very long. be his name for the purpose of this article—was placed on the caae at once. M He traced the man and found that he was a stranger In the city, He located the bouse where he had room and discovered he was going by the name of Jacob Hannon. The fellow must have sensed tho iact that he was being followed, b* cause he ceased his visits to tho li brary. About tbe same time an undersized man with a decidedly German accent begtfn to frequent the library. When interrogated he gave the name of Emil Mayer. This man pursued pretty nearly tho tame tactics as the other, hot on tho surface there did not seem to bo any connection between the two. One day he was followed to his room, and later in his absence • search was made of hts effects. . There was nothing absolutely crim inal, but the detectives did find a number of papers and tracings. ♦'You Can Kiss Me. I Like to Bs Klsssd. Bui Don’t Proposs." “Why Not? . . . See Here, Eve, |’m Through With Christmas Kisses With You." you are dependable.. If you will take it, I will put the material In your care; and—can you start tonight?” “Yes. sir. But—what sort of mate rial? I must ask, if I am to fly with nr “Chiefly glass—photographic plates,’’ “How many of them?" Lord RhondlU’ threw back a leopard skin which bad covered a large black traveling case. “They are packed, care fully, in this. I will tell you this much more, which you may-guess, from Pro fessor Bronson's presence. They are photographic plates taken by , the greatest telescopes in South Africa, of regions of the southern sky which are never visible In the northern hemi- Cole Hendron In New York city, and deliver them personally to him and to no one else. I would tell yon more about this unusual errand, Bansdeil, if the—the Implications of these plates were absolutely certain." ‘ At this, Professor Bronson started, hot again checked'' himself before speaking, and Lord Rhondln went on: "The implications, 1 may say, are realized that the matter on their minds completely transcended apy monetary consideration. • • t • • • • • The evening In New York was warm On the high terrace of the Hendron apartment Ere found that her search for a breath of fresh air was fruit less. For a moment she gazed Into the mist and monotone that was Man hattan, and then stared over the city toward the channels to the sea. “Suppose those lights are tbe Eu ropa?" she askerl Tony. “It left quarantine before seven; it’s somewhere there,” Tony said pa tiently. “Lat’s not go back In.” Eve leaned against the balustrade sphere. You are to take tbem to Dr., and looked down at the lights; and he, desirous of much more, bent jeal ously beside her. Tony laid hls'ltand pomefslvriy .on Eve:s..8he turned, her hand, lessening subtly the possesslve- nesa of b l P. and said, “You can kiss me. I like to be kissed. But don’t propose.” “Why not? ... See here. Eve. Pm through with Christmas kisses with ye*" 'i Jected. “Sure; It can’t be that But what could happen In South Africa that—” Tony returned alone to the terrace. His senses were swept by Intimate thoughts of Eve: A seductive perfume. Gold lights In her red-brown hair. Dark eyes. The sweep of a forehead behind which. In rare company, a woman's Instincts and tendernesaea dwelt with a mind ordinarily aa hon est and unevnslve as a man’s. All the tremendous Insignificances that have meaning to a man possessed by the woman he loves. He stood spellbound, staring through the night. Anthony Drake wai an athlete—that would have been the second observation another pan would have made of him. The first, that he owned that uncountqrfeitable trait which goes with what we call good birth and breeding, and generations of the like before him. With this be had the physical su’-e- ness and the gestures of suppressed power which are the result of train ing In sports. He bad the slender waist of a boxer, with .the shoulders of a discus thrower. His clothes always seemed frail In comparison with his physique. He also had Intelligence. His uni versity companions considered It a trivial side issue when he was gradu ated from Harvard with a magna cum laude; but the conservative Investment house with which he afterward be- came "affiliated appreciated the adjunct of bralus to a personality so com pelling. His head was large and square, and It required his big phy slque to give that head proportion. He was blue-eyed, sandy-haired.. He possessed a remarkably deep voice. He was .entirely normal. His attain- mepts beypnd the average were not unusual. He belonged more or leas to that type of young American business man upon whom the older generation places its hope and trust Eve was really a much more remarkable hu man being—not on account of her beauty, but because of her intellectual brilliance, and her unique training from her father. Yet Eve was not the sort who pro- ferred “Intellectual” men; IntellectuaL isuw as such. Immensely bored her. She liked the outright and vigorous and “normal.” She liked Tony Drake; and Tony, knowing this, was mors than baffled by her attitude tonight He believed her when she told him that her tantalizing abstraction was not because of another man. Then, what was Its cause? Tony was drawn from 'D^Is reverie by the appearance of Douglaa Rel com, senior partner of his fl^po.' Hit presence tere surprised Tony, son why old Balcom should not in. If ho pleased; but th%> i guests were much younger. to aa Face the fact that you have got to work out your own destiny without any magical assistance while you are In bed, or making mental pictures of a glorious future, and yon will be of far more value to yourself and to oth ers. Win or Lose assuredly lose. In this world, and In these times, men and women must go forward or back. There la no middle course. The man or woman who does not win must It Is a time of Increas ing Intelligence, of wider opportunity— even though some conditions are tem porarily upset It Is a time when strong and cour ageous men and women are making a hard fight They are determined to win in this fight und win they wllL It is easy In such a time to give way to fright and stop battling. But that la out of the question. If we do not go forward slowly, we will go back rapidly. If we do not win, we shall assuredly lose. Bear In mind that today the worM contains the same kind of people that It has always contained. Conditions in some parts of the coufr try, however, are not dependent to any great extent on what occurs across*’ the sea. • __ e e • a a m This nation became a nation because Its leaders had cold, hard nerve, and nsed it in the face of all manner of difficnltles and hardships. What a light would have appeared In the eyes of tbe men who built ft out of a handful of colonies, could they have euvisioned It today and seen how far It has gone, and bow hlgb It has built on the foundations that they laid for It*. In the history of all natlona, it has been courage and patriotism which has carried them over their difficulties. 4— Courage and patriotism are here in abundance. Moreover they are organised. What we need Is some sort ef e school In whicb whiners could be taught that whining is the province of sickly children, and not good healthy children at that • •••••• f know from my acquaintance with many men and women that they are fac ing the future calmly and have no doubt whatever that a better dey It at hand. It Is the same country, the Mine soil, that Ared heroes In the past. It abounds today with the sains kind of men and women who lived when Lexington was fought Tbe forces that made America great are still here, end In soffldeiit quan tities to carry on successfully as long aa Dm toll Is productive and men and less, but If It were possible to pot them together they might have meant much. At all events, the work of shadow ing Harmon and Mayer continued without Interruption. Two and two were put together and the conclusion of the authorities was that the library had been made the rendezvous of German spies for near ly a year. Of course It goes without mytng that there was nothing In the library that was not open to the public at any time. But the conviction grew that Har mon and Mayer were doing tbe prelim Inary work, which was afterwards veri fled by bolder and more audacious men who stole into navy yards and laid the foundations for destroying munition plants Operative Henry bad several con versations with Miss Langfltt and he compared this with the reports which were brought In as e result ef the shadowing of the two Germans Up to this point they had never been found together. In the meanwhile an attempt was made to learn something of the pre vious history of the two men. One of them It was learned had been visiting a number of the eeecoest towns In New England and It was alee alleged that he had not compiled with the-alien enemy registration laws One night United States agents started to follow the two men end . then for the first time they Joined one another In a little back room In the northwestern part pf Plttsurgh. They sat at a table and produced n mh st wise map which they began to study. — i That was the signal for the detec tives The suspects were arrested and In twenty-four hours had been placed In • detention camp. v What became of them no one win tell. The mystery has gone Into that limbo which la the repository of so many war secrets bat to this day there are persons in Plttsurgh who are mt- isfled that the timely discovery of the librarian rot off the connection be tween these men and the German was office. WHO mrvtes Rattlesnake Island Belle Isle, In Michigan, at one rime was known ae Rattlesnake Island be cause of the abundance ef reptiles am H, says e writer la rite Detroit Fran Press Hogs Immune te Make Mte because of their outer laz9£_ f£ fgt which prevent tbe venom from reach ing the blqod stream, were turn'd loose on tbe Island and quickly rid It ef snakes However, rim hogs wild, tho Island Island, and when Detroit 1879 for perk! t -mi kHU the . - s.: '-v „