Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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L- fc* V i :V.' rUi. Barnwell Paople-Sentlnel Barnwell 8. Thttraday, Pacwlyr IS, 1984 When Worlds Collide SYNOPSIS DfcTld Ran«dell, noted aviator, ar- rlvea at New York from South Africa, having Jfteen commlsaioned at Cape* town by* Lord Rhondin and Profeaaor Bronaon, the euiJironomer, to deliver a cate containing photographic platea to Dr. Cole Hendron, in New York. Tony Drake calla at the Hendrona’ apart* ■nent. Ranadell arrlvea.„and Eve Hen* dron, with whom Tony la deeply In ■love, Introducea Tony to Ranadell. New York newspapers publish a state ment by Hendron saying that Profes sor Bronson has discovered two planets, which must have broken away from another star &r sun, and have been brought under the attrac* tlan of our sun. The result of'the In evitable collision must be the end of the .earth. The approaching bodies are referred to as Bronson Alpha and Bronaon Beta. Bronson Beta will pass, but the other will hit the earth and demolish it. To devise means of trans* feeing to Bronson Beta, which is mmeh like ths earth; la what la oc»- cupylng the minds of the membra of the League of the Last Days. By EDWIN BA and ramp wylie Copyright hgr Kdwla Balmer A Philip Wylie Cdwia WNU Service and realized it “I beg your pardon. mean, I thank you . . . The Stock Exchange, I.see, la going to be open today. In fact. It undoubtedly la open now; and 1 am not ... I ought to have said to you, Ranadell, I’m glad you’re staying on. Stay on right here with me, If you like. “There’s do sense in my going to the office. There’s no sense In anything on the world, now, but preparing and perfecting the Space Ship which—be sides watching the stars—has been Mia himinoss nf tho host hiMilns iw CHAPTER TIT—Continued —5— “l could not designate New York or Philadelphia or Boston . . . They told me that tomorrow 1 must make a more reassuring statement.” Cole Hendron gazed down again at Bronson’s plates. “1 suppose, after all, it doesn’t make much difference whether or not we succeed In moving a few million more people Into the safer areas. They will be safe for only eight months more, in any case. For eight months later, we meet Bronson Alpha on the other side of the sun. And no one on earth will escape. * “But there Is a chance that a few Individuals may leave the earth and live. I am not a religious man, as you know, Tony; but as Eve said to you, It seems that It cannot be mere chance that there comes to us, out of space, not merely the sphere that will destroy us, but that ahead of it there spins a world like our own which some of us—some of us—may reach and be nrfer —— Tony took Dave RafiMelT home with him. The South African wanted to “see” New York. When Tony woke his first thought was of Eve. To have held her dose to him, to have caught her against him while she clung to him, her .lips on his ifnd then to b’e forbidden her! To be * finally and completely forbidden to love her! Her father not only forbade that Joy; he denied its further possibility for them. And her father controlled her, not merely as her father, but as a leader of this strange society, the uncanny power of which Tony Drake was Just beginning to fed: The League of the Last Days! ” A pledged and sworn circle of men, first In science all over the world,-who devoted themselves t*. their purposes with a sternness and a discipline that recalled the steadfastness of the early Christians, who submitted to any mar tyrdom to found the Church. They demanded and commanded a complete allegiance. To this tyrannical society Eve was sworn. . . . Tony found Rnnsdell at a window of the living-room. The morning pa- •per was spread over a table. “Hello." said Tony. “Kyto tells me you’ve been up awhile and have had breakfast. You’ve altogether too many good Imblts.” The South African smiled pleasant ly. “I’ll need more than I have for a starter. If I’m joining the League of the Last Days.” he observed. “Then you’ve decided to?” asked Tony. It was one of the topics they’d discussed last night. “Yes. The New York chapter, for choice.” “You're not going back to Cape town?” “No. Headquarters will be here—or wherever Doctor Hendron is.” "That’s good,” said Tony, and took the paper to the breakfast table, where Ransdell Joined him for another cup of coffee. The two young men, of widely dif ferent natures and background and training, sipped their coffee and glanced at each other across the table. “Well,” questioned Tony at* last, “want to tell me how you really feel?” “Funny,” confessed the South Af rican. “I bring up the final proof that the world’s going to end; and on the trip find the dear old footstool a -please enter place for me than l ever flg* ured before It might be. . . . “To mention the minor matters first,” Ransdell continued In his en gagingly frank and outright way, “I’ve never lived like this even for a day. I’ve never been valeted before.” Tony smiled. “That reminds me; wonder If they’ll let Kyto Into the League?” | “Not as our valet, I’m afraid,” the South African said. “I hope you per mit me the ‘our’ for the duration of my^stay. I do fancy living like this, 1 must admit I'll also tell you that 1 appreciate very much Just belnS' around where Miss Hendron Is. I didn’t know there realty was a girl like her anywhere in the world.”. “Which is going to end, we must n- . member,” Tony warned him. “Will you permit me, then, a par ticularly personal remark?” Inquired the South African. 1 . .. “Shoot” said Tony. ‘ . - . -It Is—that If I were you In your * place, 1 .wouldn’t particularly care what happened.” -My place, you mean, with—" “Witn Miss Hendron. In other words, I heartily congratulate you.” „ “You don’t know what you’re talk- *** , ^ r t” said Tony—too brusquely, League of the Last Days.” Tony went downtown; he visited his office. Habit held him, as it was hold ing most of the tiirtMreds of millions of humans in the world this day. Habit—and reaction. What was threatened, could not be! If Cole Hendron and his .brother scien lists refused, there were plenty of oth er people to put out reassuring state ments; and-the dwellers on the rim of the world regained much of their as surance. The President of the United States pointed out that, at worst, the sixty scientists had merely suggested disturbances of importance; and he predicted that If they occurred, they would be less than was now feared. Professor Copley, known to Tony as a friend of Cole Hendron’s, called at the office. “I’ve some things to sell,” he said, and laid down upon Tony’s desk an envelope full of stock certificates. "I’m Just back from Peru,” he ex- plalued cheerfully, “where I have Wen watching the progress of the Bronson bodies. Hendron tells me that you know the whole truth about them.” “It Is the truth, then?” asked Tony. “Exactly - what 4o you think will hap' pen to us?” “What will happen,” .retorted-Pro: fessor Copley, cheerfully enough, “if you toss a walnut in front of an eight een-inch gun at the Instant the shell comes out? So. I say. sell my stocks. My famfly, and my personal responsi bilities, consist of only my wife and myself; there are many things we have desired to do which we have sac rificed In exchange for a certain se curity In the future. There being no future, why not start doing what we scene I 1 hope to be spared for It Meanwhile, sell my stocks for the best prices you can obtain, please; for my wife and I—we have saved for a long time, and denied ourselves too much.” In a taxi later In the day, Tony found the street suddenly blocked by delirious group of men with locked arms, who charged out of a door, sing ing—drunk, senseless. Tony was on his way to tb* Newark airport, where a certain pilot, for whom he was to inquire, would fly him to the estate In the Adirondack* which had been turned over to Co)e Hendron. CHAPTER IV , v Eve awaited Tony in a garden sur- rounded by treea^ In the air was the scent of blossoms, the fragrance of the forest, the song of birds. She was In white, with her shoul ders and arms barertrer slender body sheathed close in silk. All feminine, she was, too feminine, indeed. In her feeling for the task she set for her self. Would she succeed better at It if she had garbed herself like a nun? An airplane droned. In the twilight sky and dropped to Its cleared and clipped landing field. Eve arose from the bench beside the little pool. She \ ' . . made man on the eartk And the Lord •aid, I win destroy men, whom I hay* created,* from the dace of the earth) both man and beast'and creeping thing*, and the fowls of tho air; for It repenteth me that I have mado them.’ And then God thought It over and softened a little; and He warned Noah to bnlld the ark to save himself and some of the beasts, so that they could start all over again. “Evolution, yon know, baa been going on upon this world for maybe five hun dred million years; and I guess God thought that If all we’d reached in all that time was what we have now, He’d wipe ua out. forever. So He started that streak'toward us to meet us and destroy us utterly. That’s Bronson Alpha. But before He sent It too far on Its way maybe He thought It all over again and decided to send Brsa- . son Beta along too. “You aee, after all, God had been working on the world for five hundred millions of years; and that nlust be an appreciable time, even to God. So want immediately?—If now la the day to sell." “Your guess on that,” said Tony, “will be as good as mine. How do you find that people are taking It?” “Superficially, today they deny; but they have had a terrible shock. Shock —that’s the first effect Bound to be. Afterward—they’ll behave according to their separate natures. But now they react In denials, because they cannot bear the shock. “All over the world! Some, are standing In the Place de 1’Opera In Paris, hour after hour, I hear, silent tor the most part. Incredulous, numb. These are the f§w that are too Intelli gent merely to deny and reject, tqf stunned to substitute a sudden end of everything for the prospect of years ahead- for which they scrimped and saved. “In Berlin there are similar groupA And Imagine the reaction in Red square, my friend 1 Imagine the Rus sians trying to realize that their revo lution, their savage effort to remodel themselves and their loner nature, has gone for nothing. All wasted! Imagine being Stalin tonight, my friend. What horror! What humor! What merci less depths of tragedy! / “Imagine the haughty Mussolini, when he finds that the secret he could not extort from his Iroo-souled men of learning is the secret of Fascism’s vanity. Vanity of vanities! All, In the end, la vanity! Dust! - “Imagine our President trying to de cry, now, this! Ah, I'could weep. But I do not Instead—I laugh. I laugh because few men—but some—some, my friend—even In the face of this colos sal. ignominy of fate, go on and nn through the night, borning out their brains yet In the endeavor to guide their own destinies. What a gesture! But today—what appalling shock! And afterward—what a acene! When the yrorld—the fifteen hundred millions of human Yieings realise, all of them, that nothing can save them, and they can not possibly save themselves What a “As Such, We May Go on the Space Ship” trembled, impatient; she circled the pool and sat down again. Hqre he came at last and alone, as she hoped. “Hello, Tony!” She tried to make It cool “Eve, my dear I” “We mustn’t say even thatl No— don’t kiss me or hold me so!” “Why? ... I know your father said not to. It’a discipline of the League of the Last Days. But why Is It? Why must they ask It? And why must you obey?” "There now, Tony. I’ll'try to ex plain to you. Let’s sit here side by side—but not your arm around me^ I want It so much, I can’t liave it. That’s why, don’t you see? We’re In I think He said. Til wipe them out; but I’ll give some of them a chance. If they’re good enough to take the chance and. tranifec to the other world I’m sending them, maybe they’re worth another trial. And I’ll save five hun dred millions of years.’ For we’ll start on . the other world, Tony, where we left off here.” “I see that,” Tony said. “What’s In that to forbid my loving you now, my taking you in my arms, my—” “I wlih we could, Tony !" “Then why not?” _ . “No reason not, if we were surely to die here, Tony—with all the rest of the world; but every reason not to, If we go on the Space Ship.” “I don’t see that!” “Don’t you? Do you suppose, Tony, that the second streak In the sky—the streak we call Brunson Beta, which will come close to this world, and pos sibly receive us safe, before Bronaon Alpha wipes out all the rest—do you Tnny, that It w aant for you and me?” . “I don’t suppose it was sent at all,” objected Tony Impatiently. “I don’t be lieve In a God who plans and repents and wipes out worlds He. made.” 1 do. A few months ago I wouldn’t have believed In Him; but since this has happened, I do. What la coming la altogether too precise and exact to be unplanned by Intelligence somewhere, or to be purposeless. And If the big one Is sent to wipe out the world, 1 don’t believe the other la sent Just to let me go ou loving you and you go on loving me.” “What.Ja your Idea, then?” “It’s sent to save, perhaps, some of the results of five hundred million years of life on this world; but not you and me, Tony.” “Why not? What are weF Eve smiled faintly. “We’re some of the results, of course. As such, we may go on the Space Ship. But If wo go, we cease to be ourselves, don’t you seeF "I don’t,” persisted Tony- stubbornly. “I mean, when wo arrive on that strange empty world—If we do—wo can’t poeelbly orrlre ae Topy Prako and Eve Hendron, to continue a love and a marriage started here. How In sane that would be!” “Insane?” “Yea. Suppose one Space Ship got across with, say, thirty In Its crew. We land and begin to live—thirty alone on an empty world as large as this. What, on that world, would we be? Individuals, paired and Mt off, each from the others, as here? No; we be come bits of biology, bearing within ua seeds far more important than our selves—far more Important than our prejudices and loves and hates.” “Exactly what do you mean by that Eve?" “I mean that marriage on Bronaon Beta—If we reach It—cannot possibly be what It la here, especially If only a few, a very few of ua reach it It will be all-important then—It will be es sential to take whatever action the cir cumstances may require to establish the race.” “You mean,” said Tony savagely, re membering the remarks at breakfast “if that flyer from South Africa—Rans dell—also made the passage on that Space Ship, and we all live, I may havs to give you op to him—when dr- cumatances seem to require ItF “I don’t know, Tony. Wc can’t pos sibly describe It now; ws can’t Imag ine the circumstances when we’rs starting all over again. But one thing we can know—we nrust not fix rela tions between ua here which may only give trouble.’ AFTER 'iStoMrnafr a very solemn time, Tony. I spent a I “Relations like love and marriage I" lot of today doing a queer thing—for me. I got to reading ths Book of Daniel again—especially Belshazzar’s feast Daniel, you may remember. In terpreted the writing on the wait ‘Mene, Meue, Tekel, Upharsln. God hath numbered thy kingdom and fin ished It Thou art'"'weighed in the balance and art found wanting. And In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain.’ “It la something very like that which la happening to ua now, Tony; only the finger, Instead of writing again on the wall, this time has taken to writing In the sky—over our heads. The Finger of God, Tony, has traced two little streaks In the sky—two ob jects moving toward us, where doth- lug ought to move; and the message of one of them is perfectly plain. “ ‘Thou art weighed In the balance and found wanting,’ that one says to ns on this world. ‘God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished It’ But what does the other streak say? ‘That is the strange one, Tony— that la the afterthought of God—the chance He la sending ns! “Remember bow the Old Testament showed God to ns, atom and roercileaa. *004 saw that the wickedness of In the earth was great!* It said, it repented the Lord that he “They might not do at all, over there." — " “You’re mad. Eve. Your father’s been talking to yon.” “Of course he has; bnt there’s only sanity In what he says. He baa thought so much more about it, he can look so calmly beyond the end of the world to what may be next, that— that he won’t have us carry Into the next world sentiments and attach ments that may only bring ns trouble and cause quarrels or rivalry and death. How frightful to fight and kill each other on that empty world! So we have to start freeing ourselves from such things here.” Til be no freer pretending I dent want yon more than anything else. Whatssort of thing does your father see for us—on Bronson BetaF She evaded him. “Why bother about It, Tony, when there’s ten thousand chances to one we’ll never get there? Bat we’ll try for It—won’t weF “I certainly will. If you’re going to.” “Then you’ll have to submit to ths discipline.” Hit anna hungered for her, and hts lips ached for hers, but he turned •way. man Inside the bouse be found her fatben And Cole Hendron. . bad to BX CONTINUED. OW glorious I How wonder ful! thought Dan, an Invita tion for Christmas 1 Christ mas with Rose Marie 1 Dan had been an orphan at the same school with Rose Marie and a great friendship had sprung up between them. She had since been adopted by a kindly family In the East, but had always kept In touch with her old friend, Danny. Now the Invitation for Christmas. Dan had never been Invited Anywhere for this one great holiday and bis whole being was stirred with great expectation. Danny had al ways had a most pleasant Christmas at the orphanage. Many generous per sons had helped make it so, but he had never been to a real “honest to goodness” borne Christmas celebra tion. Hla heart leaped with Joy. “Wonder how It will be! Wondet who’ll be there I Ob boy, I can’t wait 1” “Let’s see,” pondered Dan. “How old la Rose Marie? She was twelve when she left and that was five year* ago. Why she must be seventeen, and a young lady! Wonder how she looks! Wonder If she still blinks those hazel eyea and shakes her ‘molasses candy’ hair about like she used to do.” Some days later an atmosphere of complete Christmas joy pervaded the cosy home of the Gaylords on East End avenue. The turkey was sizzling In the oveq and the great variety of Yule cookies were being frosted and tinted with the Christmas color*. _ Some hoars later, all was a hushed silence as the little family seated about the lighted tree awaited the guest of the evening. . V ’ Soon there were footsteps crunching the snow «nd the next moment - loud peel of the doorbell. Father met Dan with the cordial welcome of “Merry Christmas, my boy. I presume this la Danny—our Rose’s old friend from Rye Junction.” Then Mother and Rose Marie, their facet wreathed in Christmas smiles, reached for Danny’s outstretched hands, simultaneously. Danny had never in all the movies beheld anyone as lovely as Rose Marie. “Why, Rose Marie, you are wonderful, simply wonderful 1 The same eyes, the same hair, oh, I—” “Here, here, you young people, yon are forgetting it’s Christmas. Merry Christmas, Dsn I Merry Christ mas, Rost Marie 1” sboqt- Dad. — Then followed an “honest to good ness Christmas in A real home. Everywhere Danny’s eyes rested. It seemed to say In golden letter*, “Mer ry Christmas, Dan!" “Mary Christ- Dan!" thri— —I REALLY am Madge Crowell admitted fcc herself as she dropped OM of the ornaments she wsi hanging on the Chrlatmai tree. “Well, who wouldn’t bs In my place—Ben has best gone more then five ysaia— maybe he'll find me changed—-that he'll be disappointed. . . . T—I couldn’t bm that" “What are you talking to youmU aboutr—A boyish void spolto ~T~ Madge’s elbow. “Is Christmas having Its effect upon you, or la It the thought' of a certain young man who is coming this evening F “Both, I guess,” Madge answered lightly. Then, turning to her broth er, she spoke more seriously. “Richard, do—do you think Ben will have changed very much—do you think he will like me as well as be need toF “Well, I shouldn’t be surprised If he baa become a little bit tanned from the African climate, or If be has grows ? a mustache, or got a bit stouter, bat as to whether he will like yen as much as he used to—I’d say ‘no.’ H#** bound to like you a lot better, that is, If he’s kept hla eyesight." “Of all the foolish, flattering broth ers 1 I should have known bettor than to ask yon such a question F Bat Madge’s eyea were pools of dancing light as she looked at her brother. “Just for anch a flippant answer. I’m going to put you at the task of clean ing np all this mess. I—I really must run op and dress; the clock seems to be running a race.” Madge’s wardrobe was not exten sive, yet It took her some time to de> dde oa what to wear, chose a simple blue gown. 8 bored that Ben had always Uked her In bine; be used to say that Itmatchod ber eyes. . . . Bat that was long ago*, they were both little more than chil dren then. Would he find ber as de sirable now as-he used to—would kit eyes glow with love and pleasure at he looked Into her face? Wen, aha would soon find out; he was due alaotf any moment now. Her heart pounded as the door NO rang. Nervously she hurried down the wide steps. In t moment Ben clasping her hands and whlsporlnf words that she thrilled to hear. Ant as bine eyes met brows tn a tong ten- fder took, Madge knew that she war going to have the very happiest Christ, of her life. A WMfern Nvwapsr Ualsa. An oyster cocktail Is for tho holiday dinner. aa the