University of South Carolina Libraries
1 AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE -4> SYNOPSIS tTn'd'er^tha leadership of Cole Rendron, noted American scientist, over 300 per* eons'escape In two Space Ships lust be* fore a cosmic coUlfiion wiped out the earth, and land -oh Bronson Beta. A smooth, ttraiffht metal roadway is dis covered, indicating that whoever once lived on Bronson Beta had swift mov ing vehicles. Thousands of glan^ mete ors hurtle through the sky, but none of Hendron's colonists Is .hurt. The meteors are fragments of fire destroyed earth’s moon. Tony Drake, Hendron’s lieutenant, and* Professor Hfggins dis cover a river bottom green with vege tation. They fln3°great forests of dead trees, preserved for a million years by the absolute cold of space. An air plane, whidh disappears almost imme diately, hies over the camp, making no attempt to communicate with its peo ple. They realize that they are not alone on the new planet, and that their —Wtiiitors may he enemies. r' ‘1 h CHAPTER III—Continued P ° Others besides themselves were on this world. Survivors of the People of the Past! Thgt Idea would not down. Contrarllj, it increased with the night Survivors of the People of the Past —or other emigrants from Earth who had made the journey - safely, estab lished themselves and already were exploring, and who, having found this encampment, had swung away again to report- Report what? And to whom? • •**••• Nothing happenedrv Days passed—the long, slow days of Bronson Beta. The murmuring specter of the. sky put in no further appear ance; but the consequences of 'ts eva Descent presence continued. The camp was roused to a fevc >u activity which reminded the emigrantli of the days of the Ark-bullding on earth. Indeed, this was Ark-buildlng again, but on a far smaller scale; for the Ark was be ing taken down, and-its materials were" being adapted to an exploration ship. The^crew that manned the farm was still at its 'post. Lumber was still be ing brought from the forest. But the most skillful and the most energetic members of the colony wfare working opon a small metal jet-propulsion ship hastily designed to travel In Bronson Beta’s atmosphere—a ship with lifting surfaces—but a ship ivith an enclosed 'cockpit; a ship which could travel very rapidly through the atmosphere nfThe *iew planet, and which could rise above that atriiosphere If It became neces sary. If the colonists were to preserve the intelligent pattern of their plans. It was essential to learn at once what In terference threatefied them. They could look upon themselves no longer as law unto themselves. Some other beTngs—survivors of the people of this planet or others from the earth- shared this new world with them. On the morning of the fifty-sixth Bronson Beta day after their arrival, the airship>wa8 ready. At about noon of that day Tony hnd Eliot .James i.*limhed Into the hatch of the ship, after Tony, under Hendron’s tutelage, had been familiarizing himself with the controls. They were to make the exploration alone; the ship had been built only for pilot and observer. Both carried pis ■ tols. ' As long as the explorers stayed In their ship, they possessed, of course, weapons far more deadly than pistols— the jet-propulsion_ tuies which had proved their terrible deadliness on the night of the raid on the camp in Micb- Igan. v The camp here owned the same weapons; for all the tubes from the Ark had not been broken up to supply the little exploration ship. Hendron, keeping his word to prepare defense fot the camp, had had the extra tubes prepared- and mounted almost like cannon—which he hoped never to use. But he had them. Hendron watched Eliot James es tablish himself In the cockpit beside Tony; then'he beckoned him out Hen dron would make one last trial flight with Tony at the controls. So James reluctantly stepped out; Hendron stepped In, and ther ship rose. It rose—shot. Indeed, crazily for ward, spun, jumped still, higher and finally rushed southward along the by EDWIN BALMER and PHILIP WYLIE Copyright, Its 4, by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylla. WNU Service. ^everything you are likely to need. In all our observations from the n earth, we made out a great continent here nearly two thousand miles wide and seven Thousand in length. We believe we landeV ibout the middle of the east coast of that continent. “Your charts have spotted Hn-Them the sites of the cities that we thought we observed. Go to the nearest points first, and then as much farther as—as circumstances dictate. “Remember, if you come upon sur vivors of the original people of this plflnet, their first impulse may be to protect themselves against you. 1 can not myself Imagine how any of the people of this planet have survived; yet I must admit the possibility. If they live, they probably have weapons or materials of defense and offense utter ly ' strange to us. . . . Far more probably, you may find other people from ea^th. If you possibly can, avoid -conflict of any sort with them. -Noth ing could be more tragic than warfare between us here. Yet—If they attack, you must defend yourselves. Fight to kill—to annihilate, if need be! May the God ot this world go with you!” He stepped back and, for a moment, Tony merely stared at him. No mo ment since they had -gained the ground of this strange plane.t^ had been as pregnant with the emotions of the Earth. Fight to kill—to annihilate, if need be! Eve dty laid out In a circular geometrical pattern, a dty which had at regular Intervala gigantic terraced metal sky- scrapers—a city , with countless layers of roads and streets leading froijn one group of buildings to the next—a dty around the outer edge of which ran a huge trestled railroad. Tony fiew directly to the bubble and circled It at a short distance from Its perimeter. The men looked down In sthhned UTehCe as the ship wheeled slowly round the great transparent bubble. Both observers realized that the city had been enclosed for some such reason as to keep out Cold or to keep Its Internal temperature'’unchanged. Dimly Tony heard James shouting: “It’s magnificent!” And In an almost choked voice be replied: “They must have been amfizlng.” In the majestic streets beneath that dome no tlvtng thing moved. No lights glowed In those streets where the setting sun al lowed shadows to fall; no smoke, no steam, no fire showed anywhere, and although their motor made hearing im possible, they knew Instinctively that the colossal, triumphant metropolis be low them was as silent as the grave. Eliot James spoke: “Guess we’d bet ter have a look-see!" - - — Tony nodded. He had already noted that several metal roada led up to the “There’* something that look* very much like a knocker right over there.” Tony pointed to a heavy metal ring Which was apparently fitted In the end of a lever In a slot at the side of the 'gate. They walked over to It The gate Itself was perhaps thirty feet In width and forty feet high. The ring waa about at the level of Tony’b eye*. Above it. was an inscription In the • unknown language of the unknown In habitants of Bronson Beta. Tony took hold of the ring and pulled tt Much to his astonishment two gates quietly and swiftly separated. Air blew from the city withes gusty sound, air that seemed'age-old, and continued to blow as they hesitantly walked through the gates Inside, under the mighty glass dome, they were confronted by a stupendous spectacle. Straight through the heart of the circular city ran a highway along the edge of which were tw’o rails, so that by leaning over ’they as certained a moment later that under neath this top street were other thor- oughfares at lower levels;—On—both sides of the street, which was wider than the main aveiiue of any of the earth’s cities, towered colossal build ings The tallest of them, In the cen ter of the city, must have been more than half a mile in height, and they were made of materials which took brilliant colors, which gave back In the punllght myriad glittering hues. Ex quisitely suspended bridges connected these buildings, which rose at inter vals of approximately a quarter of a “DUST S NO NE ■pilYC’Y i ?y hear* from Mm—because any tat’ IVLYID j t#r to b iia must be written la the old nroXRW* literary fdrm, and its composition la 1 JLiUlV7 a long and fatiguing task. Records of Depopulation of ^ • Whole Regions. ' No one who has not been In one of die dust storms which have swept he western plains for more than a rear can appreciate their devasta tion and the apprehensions of the people in the region extending from :he Gulf of Mexico to the Great Slave lake. Science knows full well' the po tentialities of this terrible phenome non. It has Innumerable records ‘■of Mher soil transformations brought about by the wind. Much of the rich er soil over vast areas In the United States was carried there by dust storms.- An analysis of dust falling In Missouri a year ago revealed the Even tbt greatest scholar* cannot write without a good dictionary at hand. Educated men find It to read Japanse classics la an Ush translation than In the orlglnaL-w Willard-Prince, In Asia Magazine. broke the spell. She stepped forward J^Gx>od-bv. Tony." She gave him her hand; and he longed to draw her to him. and though before them all, to clasp her close and kiss her again. Suddenly, defiantly, he did it. She clung to him. It was an other very earthly momenj. His eyes caught Hendron’s and found in Her father’s— In his leader's— no reproach. Hendron, Indeed, nodded ' Shirley Cotton spoke to him; he grasped her hand, and she kissed his cheek. She kissed also Eliot James. Others crowded about. - Then Hendron signaled men and women alike away from the ship. Tony and Eliot climbed in; but they waited until their friends had retreated near ly half a mile before they set the jet- propulsion tubes In action. * ' There was a tremendous roar. The ship bounded forth and took the air. A few moments later it was out of sight; a spark In the sunshine—then nothing. * : Eve sat down and wept Hendron knelt beside her, "encircling her with umlt his arms, and reniimied there staring toward the west In silence. • •••••• Tony flew at a height of five thou sand feet. They followed the Other People’s road inland. From the far side of a valley, the mountains rose precipitously to the level at which Tony was flying. They were craglika raw mountains of red and bronze-col ored stone, bleak and forbidding. Tony tilted the nose of the plane upward and gained sufficient altitude to clear their summit by a few thou sand feet. They rose higher to sur mount still loftier peaks. For almost half an hour they flew straight west across the ^ mountains, and then, far away, they saw a break in the turmoil of upthrust peaks. The mountains fin ally gave way to a broad flat plain. It was a,plain that sc tied endless and through Its heart, like an arrow, ran the metal road. Tony occupied himself with the bus! ness of losing altitude for a few mo- aments and abruptly felt his arm gripped by James’ hand. He followed the outstretched finger of his compan ion and he drew In his breath in aston ishment CHAPTER IV Far away on the horizon, blazing In the pathway of the sun, was a mighty iridescent bubble. From the windows of the plane it appeared to be small In the Majestic Streets Beneath That Dome No Living Thing Moved and Although Their Motor Made Hearing Impossible, They Knew Instinctively That the Coloseal, Triumphant Metropolia Below Them Was aa Silent as the Grave. bubble which covered the city, and that the bubble Itself was penetrated , by gateways."" He tipped the nose of the ship toward one of the gates and a few moments later rolled up to a stop on the smooth metal roadway which entered through the locked gate. The two men climbed out of the ship. When they put their feet on the ground and looked toward the city, one gate of which was now only a few rods from where they stood, its majesty was a thousand times more apparent than It had been from the air. Their Imag inations were staggered, their very souls were confounded with the awful silence and lonesomeness of the place. They looked at each other without speaking. Finally Tony turned to Eliot James and grinned. “Here we are, pal!" ■■■ v “Sure. Here we are. What do you suppose this Is—their Chicago? New Orleans? Paris, Bombay, Tokyo?" “Search me,” said Tony, trying to down his awe. They knew .that this was a city of the dead; It must be. But, standing there at its gate, they could not feel IL , Their eyes searched the curved slope of the great glass dome over the geo metrical angles of 'the metal gate. Nothing stirred; nothing sounded. Not even an echo returned. “Maybe everybody’* asleep,” said Tha Camp Was .Roused io S Feverish Ac tivity, Re minding the Emigrants of the Busy Days Spent in Build- Ing the Ark. coast till the camp was nearly out of sight. Then Tony brought It back, pushing away Hendron’a hands that wanted to help him. He made a land tog on the barren acres selected a mile from the camp; and after, waiting a few minutes. Tony and then Hendron leaped over the hot earth which sur rounded the ship, and went to meet the people hurrying from the camp. Eve was with the first of them; and Tony saw her pale and shaken. “Ob, Tony !” she exclaimed. “You nearly--" He looked at her and grinned. *T certainly nearly did whatever you were going to say.” Hen.lron said: “He did well euougb.” “AH right now?” asked Eliot James ! •A it itaid Hendron tiiem relnctain to • •> f-rv** * .•/ and yet lei them ^laca— and yet Its distance waa ao great that the senses Immediately made the prop er adjustment in scale. It was like half of a soap bubble, five or ten miles in diameter, sitting on the earth. Its curv ature waa perfect It waa obviously not a natural formation. The road pointed toward it and Tony followed the road. What It waa he could not guess. Eliot James hazarded a notion: “Per haps the people of Bronson Beta lived under those things when they began to drift out In space.” The bubble stretched out laterally before them aa they flew, and quite suddenly they were, able to se4| In the opalescent glitters of Its surface what was within It It was shoot bit miles In width and mor| tyian a mile In height at Its center. Inside It com pletely contained by It was-a dty—a Eliot James, ind knew hr made no sense “Maybe everybody's taking a walk.” » “We’ll find them instfie. We must find some of them Inside,” said Tony. “Dead, of course,” said Eliot “Tea,” agreed Tony. “Of course, they’re dead.” Bui be had never been further from believing It /The dty stood ao In order that It teemed Its Inhabitants must be going abour within. It seemed that dowr. the wide road to’ this gate, some one mupt be coming. Tony suddenly spun about startling Eliot who jerked around, a Isa No one and nothing approached. The wide, smooth, hard road remained ut terly deserted. Again they looked at the gate. “How do you suppose we can ^et In here?” Eliot asked. mile. From their airplane the city had looked like a spangled toy town, but from Its own streets, it looked like the royal city of Titans. There was no sound In It, not a murmur, not a throb, not a tinkle or a pulsation—just si lence. Nothing moved. They stared’down the avenue ahead of them and aside along the ways that crossed IL “Where are they, Tony?" Eliot James whispered. He meant not, “Where are living beings?" For he knew the peo ple who built this city must be dead; but he expected, at least, thelf. bodies. Tony, too, bad failed to drive away such expectation. If not living, where were the dead? He could not help expecting the streets to be, somehow, like those of POmpeil after the debris and ash of Vesuvius was cleared away; he could not help expecting to see bones of the Beings, fallen * in flight from their city. , But conditions here bad been the op posite of those in PompeiL There It was sudden destruction by fiery blasts and burial from volcanic ash, that had overwhelmed the people and caught and buried them. Here, Instead of Sud den, consuming heat, had come alow, creeping cold—cold and darkness, of the coming of which they had been warned for generations. Such a death could have caught no one unprepared on the streets of the city. “Where are they, Tony?” Eliot James whispered again, as his senses reminded him of the situation. “Where did they go to die? Did they stay In -their homes, do you think ?—Will w*. find them In these buildingsT’ “1 don’t think so,” Tony tried to say steadily. Improving hla tone above a whisper. “Where will we find them, then?" “We won’t find them—any of them here, 1 think,” Tony said. “Why? What did they do?” "What would such people do?” Tony returned. “Such people as could build this city? What would they do against annihilation which they could see com ing for a century?” “They eliminated / themselves, ot course: they ceased to reproduce themselves; they ceased to have chil dren." * — “That," said Tony, “seems certainly the logical thing to do; and these peo ple appear to have been logical' But there must have been some group who were the last They could scarcely have burled themselves after they died. Somewhere we will find—eom* body.” / “It’s marvelous,” said .Eliot Jamea, “bow they left thla dty. Shall wa move onT” “All right,” agreed Tony, and ended their paralysis of amazemhot “This street,” he said, “might hast been swept yesterday. characteristics of soil in the Da kotas. All soils are easily Identified by their mineral content. The Da kotas had been exposed to drouth for a number of years. The soil wag deprived of Its protective vegetation. Thus, when the wind blew, the soil was carried away to be deposited In othqr states. To most of. jus who live where moisture is sufficient for human needs, it Is difficult to realize that the dust storms have been raging al winter. Neither snow nor rain has been sufficient to keep the dust down even In mountainous states like Col orado. Heavy rains have flooded the lower Mississippi valley, but the shortage of moisture has gone right on In the plains. Whether in Texas or Saskatchewan/ the wind has only to rise and the du*t4s blown. If any thing, the dust storms have been worse than ever in the last two months. They have actually burled fences, piled dust high around houses and barns, covered up crops. They are destructive alike to man and beast. No form of life can withstand them day after day very long. Needless to say, the dust phenome non has greatly altered the food sit uation In the- United States. It af fects meats and grains. It Is In part responsible for the Increased cost of living. The AAA plan to limit the production of spring wheat has been abandoned. How can there be too much wheat when the wheat states are the chief victims of the dust? The drouth reduced com last year to a minimum. If It persists this year, there will be'no reserves of corn left. From surplus Induced by excess production In our own, and other countries, we are In danger of passing to scarcity due to drouth and dust. Records of drouth are readily traced In the rings of trees. There are records of other drouths In- the plains as bad as or worse than ’the present drouth. This Is not, how ever, an assurance to science. that we may now be witnessing the be ginnings of one of those deserts In which nature delights. It was when the Southwest, became a desert that the Indians moved Into Mexico. Life follows the moisture-bearing air cur rents. When they passed from the region south of the Mediterranean to the region north of the Medlter ranean, life followed them. The Asi atics have long been accustomed to packing up and following the mois ture-bearing winds. Science would not care to assert Its entire apprehensions of the dust storms In the western plains. They, may be the consequences of just ah- other drouth. Or they may be the beginning of the end for all that region where the buffalo grazed. Sci ence knows what has happened. What Is to happen Is on the knees of the gods.—SL Louis Post-Dispatch. For the Shallow Mind Egotism is one of the roads to bap* piness.—Exchange. ■ Regular Elimination . Tho prop* Black-Draught, (for constipation) tends to leave tho bowels acting regularly. It is reliable long- established family laxative. ' ’ “I have used Thedfoyd’s Black- Draught fully thirty years," writes Mrs. I. E. McDuff, of Elgin, Texas. 1 had trouble from constipation is why I first began Hie use of it, and v as it gave perfect satisfaction I do not tea J Another good thing about Black- Draught that helps to make It so popuUr—it is NOT axpeosiva. THEDFORD’S BLACK-DRAUGHT WATCH YOU KIBHEYS! Be Sure They Properly Cleanse the Blood . • Y OUR kidneys are constantly ill* tering Impurities from the blood stream. But kidneys get function ally disturbed—lag In their work,— . fall to remove the poisonous body; wastes. Then you may suffer nagging backache, attacks of dizziness, burning, scanty or too frequent urination, getting up at night, swollen feet and anklear rhatnnaflo pains; feel “all worn out” Don’t delay! For the quicker you get rid of these poisons, the better your chances of good health. Use Doan's Pills. Doan's are for the kidneys only. They tend to pro* mote normal functioning of the kidneys; should help them pass off the Irritating poiaona. Doan's are recommended by users the country over. Get them from any druggist. pofltrs Pitts NEUTRALIZE Mouth Acids —by chawing on« or mora MUn—ia Wains ft ILNESIA H'- 'mill WAFERS n"'/ - UnsMhtly Complexions muddy-looking, blotchy and ^red—relieved and Improved with safe, medicated Resinol. • : l \ *;% 4- .. v Hard for Japanese to Master Own Language The hardest job of the Japanese student Is to learn his own language. Added to Its owp difficulties are-the difficulties of Chinese; for modern Japanese contains a sprinkling of more than 50,000 Chinese characters. The primary stndent tolls over his own language seven hours a week in class, seven hours a week at home, a total of fourteen hours a week for six years. At the end of that time he has mastered only About 3,000 of the Chinese Ideographs (eaeh having five or six different meanings). He ^pan read a newspaper. But he ts still baffledThy a magazine or book, un less written In the most? colloquial speech. Even university students have very uncertain knowledge of the lit erary language. It Is supposed to be used In the composition of letters, ar ticles, . books. A young friend of mine In Tokio Imperial university, principal Institution of learning in Japan, confesses that bis nnde rare- STOCK mt POULTRY * • Blackmaa’s Madkatad Iflelr. A-Brik • Blackmaa’s Stock Fawdw • Blackmaa’s Caw Taaac • Blackman’s Ckar-MaA-Sal • BUckau’t Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money beck. BUY FROM YOUR DEALER . / A TONIC and BOLDER Mr. J. W. Back, of ttU EMoSuAufi “Dr. Pierce'* i Diacovery 1* a wonderful tonic. I hurt relied opon tt ot different time* wnen I locked ctrength end wjr np* food beahfa nanin.” . Nov rise, tablet* SO cU, Hqoid $1,001 Lof** ^WriteD? ^2 J o l cSt?BttS8?!j' Y„ fa« free nodical advice. BE A NURSE GIBLIL WOMEN wiahivs to enter ing to become nuraea oeoa eel •tamped envelope for detaila. SOUTHEKN BUREAU, Bet