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AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE SYNOPSIS T" by EDWIN BALMER and PHILIP WYLIE “ 7 ' Copyright, 1934, by Kdwln Balmer and Philip Wylia. WNU 8«rvlce. tTndar tha leadership of Cole Hendron, hoted American scientist, over 300 peril •ona escape In two Space Ships just be4 tort a cosmic collision wiped 1 out the earth, and land on Bronson Beta. Giant meteors, fragments of the earth’s moon, fall In their vicinity, but none of Hendron's colonists is hurt. A river bottom green with vegetation Is found, and great forests of dead trees, preserved for a million years by the absolute cold of space. An airplane, which disappears almost immediately, flies over the camp, making no attempt to communicate with its people, who realize that they are not alone on the new planet, and that their visitors may be enemies. Tony Drake and Eiipt James, in an exploration airplane flight, come upon a wondrous city, en closed under what seems like half an Iridedpent glass bubble six miles wide and half a mile high at its repter. Among their finds, when they make an entry, is an edible grain—millions of bushels. On their flight back they see the beam of a searchlight, and come down. ‘ CHARTER V —7— At their feet, not more than a mile —so close that the "purring of machinery was faintly audible—a sin gle searchlight turned Its unwinking eye upon the heavens. In the diffused light ardund the great lamp they were able to see many things. A huge cylinder, a cylinder like their own Ark but larger, lay toppled upon Its side, crippled and riveh. Near the cylin der was an orderly group of shelters. Standing beqide the searchlight were two dtttf-Hwrllgurfcg of human beings. "It's our other people!” Tony said, and his voice choked. v Eliot James gripped his arm. “May be not It’s about the same size, but how can you be sure? Those people who flew over a few nights ago and didn’t like us may have come up In It” “Come on,” Tony said. “Quietly, then.” The minutes were like hours. They were on level ground now, sluicing through the blackness like Indians. They were half a mile from the two figures at the light. Both were mdn. At that distance Tony and Eliot could see how horribly the ipace ship had been mangled. Whether they were friends or . enemies, their arrival on Bronson Beta had been disastrous. They crept forward. Suddenly Tony emitted a wild bellow, rose to bis feet and rushed toward the light. Eliot James followed Mm—and presently vnderstood. Tony’s first shout had been inar- tlculate, but as he^ran now he called: — — .^ “Ransdell I RansdeTIT Off, iny f delkate huajnesa pf landing. Three of It’s me—Tony Drake! We’ve found you at last!” And Eliot James, running like a deer, aaw one of the men at the light turn around, lift his hand, try to say some thing, fall forward In a faint. Ten minutes later, only fen minutes, and yet to two hundred and eighteen ■ human souls that ten minutes had marked the beginning of salvation. whose faces had become the faces of friends for Tony knd Eliot James in the past two years. Somebody brought two tubs. Upon them Tony and Ransdell stood. Tony felt it utterly useless to at tempt to speak to the throng; the peo ple were too hysterical. They had thought themselves recuperated from Shock; but this intense excitement be trayed them. . « Ransdell went to Tony and drew him away from 1 the excited throng. “Eliot!" shouted Tony to his com panion in this flight of exploration. “You try to tell them—as soon as they give you a chance.” “O. K.!” Eliot yelled, and he stepped up on the tub which Tony had quit ted. He shouted and made gestures and caught the crowd’s attention. Only a few trailed after Tony and Ransdell. Tony could not yet quiet his own inner tumult. Hq felt an arm about his shoulder, and found Jack Taylor beside him. On .the other side walked Peter Vanderbilt. The four friends sat down on, the ground dose together, seeing each other In the distant radiance of the lights in the camp; and interrupting each other as they told, they traded their experiences in the flight from earth.’ ,, Thfe account that Tony heard was far more tragic, of course, than that which he had to tell. The technicians under command of David Ransdell had made their calculations accurately, and the Journey through space had been no more eventful than that of the ship In which Tony and his comrades had traveled. However, the second Ark had been built more hastily, and Its greater size increased Its difficul ties; as It approached Bronson Beta it became evident that the lining of Its propulsion-tubes was being rapidly fused. It approached the planet safe ly, however. The coast which the second Ark ap proached—the coast upon which It now lay—was fog-bound. “In spite of the fog,” Ransdell said to Tony, “we had to land at once. We were flying ‘blind/ and had to land by Instru ment. I gave the command to set down the.ship under the added pres sure of the blast required for the our tubes fused almost slmultaneouslyT The ship careened and almost tipped over. In trying to right It, we rose perhaps fifty feet above this desert.” He swept his hand toward the sur rounding darkness. "And then we crashed.” Tony nodded. Ransdell went on: “Every bit of apparatus that was in the least fragile was, of course, demol- “Three of Our Tubes Fused Almost Simultaneously. The Ship Careened and Almost Tipped Over." ... He Swept His Hands Toward the Surrounding Darkness. “And Then We Crashed." Every one was awake—all the lights were shining. The cheers still rose sporadically. ^Ransdell had come to, and was still rocking In the arms of Tony when he, did not unclasp him long enough to einbrace Eliot James. The crowd of people, delirious with Joy, was frying to touch them and talk to them. All the crowd, that Is, except those who had not yet recov ered from the terrible smash-up of the landing—and those who would never recover. Ransdell had fainted, for* the first '"-time in his life, out of pure Joy, pure ecstasy, and out of cosmic fatigue. ' When he succeeded In reducing his command to a momentary quiet, he aaid, “Tony has told me that the Ark made the trip and landed safely, and that everybody aboard her Is all right" * Again the cheering. Again people rushed forward by the score to shake Tony’s hand. Jack Little was there, bandaged and grinning. Peter Van derbilt, apparently calm but blowing Ills nose in a suspicious manner. Jack Taylor was there, too, and Smith and <Qr«ve and a haadrod other people ’ ished. On top of the crash, one ..of the Jet-tubes burst and Its blast pene trated the storeroom. That might have been much worse; it might have an nihilated half our party. Perhaps It did so, Indirectly—It fused or de stroyed more than half our stores and equipment Since landing, we have not found It possible to construct even a radio. That Is why you have heard no signals from us. We had more than we could do, for the first weeks,, tak ing care of our injured and burying the dead—and salvaging and making usable what supplies were spared. In part. The searchlight yon saw to night was the best effort we accom plished.” Suddenly RahsdeU’s voice failed him. He cleared his throat and con tinued very quietly*: “To tell the truth, Tony, we wondered whether we should try to'-communicate with Hen- dron’a party—assuming you had come through safe. We are so without sup plies or resources, that we could only be a burden to you. It was that, as much as anything else, which stopped us from making efforts to find you. We 4edded not to drag yon dews and per haps cause you, as wfell as ourselves, to perish.” “You ~ would!" said Tony. “You would decide upon that—Vanderbilt knd Taylor and. you, Dave. But thank God, that point’s past. I haven't told you half the news. Eliot James and I didn’t come from our camp to-yott, We came from a city! A city of th|* old inhabitants of this planet! -For It was inhabited, as we thought. And by what people! Eliot and I spent three days In one of their cities!” “But not—with Them?" “No," agreed Tony. “Not with them! They’re gone! They’re dead, 1 sup pose—for a million years. But wait tilF you 'hear what they left behind them! And what the cold and the dark of space saved for :us! Food, for one thing Davel... Peter I Jack!” In their excitement . they were all standing up again, and Tony was beat ing each of them in turn upon the back. “Food—grain and other things sayed for us by Space’s wonderful re frigerate/ of absolute cold. Cheer up! Food—something to flit you—no long- er’s one of our troubles. Their food— if It doesn’t kill us all. And It hasn’t killed Eliot or me yet. , . Listen! What’s that?” For there was shouting lu the camp. “I suspect,” said Peter Vanderbilt, “that James had got to that point, too. He’s been telling them of the food you found. Perhaps now we better rejoin our comrades and—tbe ladles.” It was Indeed salvation which Tony Drake and Eliot James bad brought out of the night—salvation ahd the end of some of the hardships heroically borne. Tony did not realize then' the extent of those hardships; but when half an hour later coffee was served for all In the Improvised dining hall, he was made to realize It by a simple statement of tansdell’s. “This is the first ration of coffee we have served, except to those In most desperate con dition, since the day after we landed.” It was a hilarious midnight picnic In the Impromptu dining 'hall, where the men and women dared to eat as much as they wanted for the first time since their epochal Journey—where they sang hymns, shouted snatches of gay songs from lost days on the vanished earth, wept and laughed again, over- hilarlously. Tony gained Items from this and that of his companions,‘which enabled him gradually to piece to gether a more coherent account of the experience of the second band of Ar gonauts? The horrible day of the land ing as the fog cleared away, revealing moment by moment the magnitude ot the disaster which had overtaken them; the groans of theTwbundedyihe crushed and mangled bodies of the dead; the desperate efforts of the doc tors and surgeons among them to save thosh who were not beyond hope. The shocking discovery that every one of the seeds so carefully stored on the ship had been burned by the unleashed atomic blast. The necessary destruc tion of the animals which had sur vived the crash, ahd the utilization of them for food. Rationing, then, and hunger. Long and weary expeditions on foot In search of sustenance-and vegetation. “For a while,” said Jack Taylor, “we believed that nobody else—no other ship from earth—got over. We felt that, desperate as our situation was, yet we were the luckiest” “But two weeks ago,” put in Pefer Vanderbilt “we began to believe jilf- would look, in the air, like nothing we bad on earth but a lark. They had small, economical and evidently ex ceedingly powerful engines that pro pelled them by a motive power we haven’t learned to employ. I believe It was one of those machines which flew over you—and over us.” r\ “Flew?” repeated Peter Vanderbilt calmly. “Of itself? No pilot?” ' Tony shook his head. "A pilot perhaps,” pronounced Van-1 derbilt softly, “a million years dead?” Tony nodded; the Inclination of his -head In the affirmative made them Jump. • " v “You don’t believe It!" Peter Van derbilt rebuked him. “You,” said Tony, “haven’t been In their city. We were there three days, and never ceased to expect them to walk out any door!" "After a million years dead ?” “How do we know how it might have hifen?” Peter Vanderbilt flicked a speck from his sleeve. .‘^The machine could have come from one source,” he sug- Unique “Primrose” Rug to Crochet { —^ My CRANDMOTHEft CLARK “Her Name’s Clara," Said RanadelL “Nobody Brought Her Over. Ev erybody Denied They Had Any* thing to Do With Her Being on Board. But There She Wae." gested, “the pilot from another. The machine could have survived the mil lion years’ cold; we know that some did. You saw them. But the pilot need have survived no. more than a passage from earth—which some three hundred of us here have survived, and a hundred In your camp also." “Of course," accepted Eliot James practically. “Another party could have got across—several parties; the German, the Russians, the Japanese or some others. Two weeks or more This rag rug measures 42 inches md require* ahSut lhree poireKKr oT material to finish. It appears to he made of six squares each of a differ ent size, with the horizontal positions alternating. Work Is started with the center square about 5 Inches in diameter. Triangles are then cro cheted on the four sides of Inner square forming the second square. Continue same way for third, fourth and fifth squares. The sixth square is the same size as fifth square and therefore requires smaller triangles on sides than the others. Colors should be so arranged that center Is in light shades of yellow, while outer triangles represent the petals of flow ers, and may be shaded in color de sired. This can be made Into a very attractive and unique rug, depending very much on the color scheme used. This Is one of the twenty-six cro cheted and braided rugs Illustrated with Instructions In Grandmother Clark’s rtig book No. 23. Detailed Instructions are given In this book for the “Primrose" rug, and If yon are Interested, send 15c to oar Rug Department and we will send It to yon by malL Address—HOME CRAFT COM PANY, DEPARTMENT C, Nineteenth and 8L Louis Avenue, St Louis, Mo. Enclose a stamped addressed en velops for reply when writing for any information. • Uncover Mayan Giles Fifteen Centuries Old Oarnegl# Institution fUzetn probing the dense Jangles of Guate mala and Honduras ha vs made new discoveries in connection with the ancient Mayan civilization which flourished In Central America when a few people atlty lived who could re member the crucifixion of Christ. Under many feet of deposited silt and tangled vegetation they, hav^ found cities once populous and richly ballt with palaces and temples, bat deserted now for 13 centuries. One ruined city In particular In northern Guatemala .- has attracted ‘attention.** It Iq surrounded b> a moat very sim ilar to those used extensively cen turies later In Europe. Originally the ditch was abqot ten feet deep and.ten feet wide. It was spanned in different places by seven masonry bridges, and was connected with a nearby swamp so that during the rainy season It was filled with water. This Is the first moated city ever found In America and it Is not cer tain whether It was used as a means of protection against raiding tribes or whether It had a religions mean ing. In Honduras an expedition has uncovered two stone altars And many monuments. All were ornately carved with the picture writing of the an cient Mayas which leaves us a rec ord of their empire.—Pathfinder Mag azine. % !ljS Week’s Supply of Postum Free Read the offer made by the Postuui Company In another part of this pa per. They will send a full week’s sup ply of health giving Postnm free to anyone who writes for it—Adv. Might Try It If yon have a tree that bears no frtilt put a stone in Its first crotch Just before blossoming time; the D«bt to ScUace When sugar was first made from beets It required about 20 tons ef beets to produce one ton of sugar; now tt requires hut change being due ductlon of been. to six tonSr~4hs scientific pro- Quick Scifr Rolipf F o f F: /1 ■ s i m t a 11 > c.' . FOR YGliH EYF S To keep dean and heal Pierce's Pleasaa* Pellets, liver, bowels and stomach.' thy tal . Theyr .—Adv. take Dr. regulate Incurable? No talkative man was ever able to reform himself In that particular. Why?” asked Tony. “Airplane,” replied Vanderbilt suc cinctly. “It didn’t land." “Neither did' ours,” said Tony. , “You mean you sent it? It was your machine?” Ransdell swiftly demanded. “Not two weeks ago,” Tony denied. “We had nothing in the air then. I mean, an airplane visited us, too; and it didn’t too plainly appear." "But you saw It?” “We got a •Tlimpse of it—a glint of light on a wing through the clouds,” explained Tony. “Did you see more here?” “Yes,” said Ransdell. “We got a shape—a silhouette. Queer type; we couldn’t identify It, Long, hack-point ing wings. Like larks’ wings, -some body said. It looked like a giant lark In the sky. You know whose plane It 1 waS? What party brought that type over?” “No party,” said Tony bluntly. “What do you mean?"--^ “What I say. No party from earth brought that ship with them. It wasn’t brought over.” He had gone a little pale, as he spoke; and he wiped his forehead and then his bands with his handkerchief. “What—the—h—1!" whispered Jack Taylor with awed deliberation. “I said,” Iterated Tony solemnly, “It wasn’t brought over. On the edge of the city of the Other People, of which we’ve been telling you—under the great glass dome, bu^ near an edge where they could be run out, easily— was a sort of hangar of those things. We saw a—a hundred of them. Like larks, they’d look In the sky—all met al larks of marvelous design. ’ They had engines. But we couldn't get one going. We tried to." He stopped, wet his Upe. “Go on! For God’s sake, go on!" “All right," said Tony. “But where do I go from there? What am I to tell you? I can tell you this; for I know It I saw It I saw the machines; and I felt them with my hands; and as I told yon, I tried to make the engine work, but Eliot and I couldn’t “The Other People—the People a Million Years Dead—the Inhabitants of Bronaos Beta—had aircraft that ^ tree will snrely be fruitful after that ago they may have- 4e»a4 -another- Sealed City with the Other People’s aircraft” “And they," said Tony, “may have got one of the engines going.” “Exactly!” “All right," said Tony, “that’s that Then why did the pilot whoever he Is, look us over and leave without mes sage or signai? Why—” They sat down, but drew closer to gether. “If some of the Other Peo ple survived, what would be their at- titude to us, woiild you say? Would they know who we were, and where we came from?” Tony led a dozen men to the ship" In which Eliot and he had flown; and they bore to the camp the amazing articles from the Sealed City. Tony, seated on the ground "knd leaning on his hand beside him, felt a queer, sett constriction of his fore finger. He drew his hand "iipV and the constriction clamped tighter, and he felt a little weight. Some small, living thing had clasped him. It let go and leaped onto his shoulder. “Hello!” cried Tony, as two tiny soft hands and two tlny-toed feet clung to him. “HelloI Hello!” It was a monkey. “Her name’s Clara," said Ransdell “Yours?” asked Tony. “You brought her over?” “Nobody brought her over,” Ransdell replied. “She stowed aw’ay.” “Stowed away?” “We discovered her after things got calm in space,” Ransdell said, smil ing. "When we were well away frqra the earth and had good equilibrium. Everybody denied they had anything to do with her being on hoard. In fact, nobody would even admit having seen her before; but there she was.” “Good work, Clara." Tony extended his finger, which Clara clasped solemn ly, and “shook bands” by keeping her clasp as he waved his finger. Since we’re checking up,” added Ransdell, "you might as well know that we brought over one more passenger not on the last lists we made back thfre In Michigan.—Marian!” he called to the group about them. “You here?” Where would I be?" A girl of about twenty-three stood up and walked toward him. Tony noticed that sh« carried herself with a boldness differ ent from the others. 1 “Her name,” Ransdell murmured as she approached, “is Marian Jackson. Lived in St Louis. An acrobatic dancer. Kept her head during th« chaos before the destruction. Read about our plans. Crawled Into camp the night bef<|re we took off. Lived In tbe woods for three weeks before that—nobody knows what on.” The girl reached Che table and took Tony’s hand. “I’#e beard about you.” she said. “Often. You dop’t look any thing like I supposed you would. “I’m glad to meet you,” Tony replleo. Unabashed, she studied him. “You look shot,” she said finally. Tony grinned. “I am a little tired.* You better go back to your plant* Ransdell said. vo m oowtimv: riKGEKWAVUfG at home. W* teach yon how. Ootn- ? lete eouroe for limited time 11.H. Send •o tor Information. THOMPSON. Bat N. Y. of valno and merit NSW AOENTa—men and women/^ viclr r PRuuwra Why Pay the Doctor! XBMA-RBM tor *R akin dUeaaea. Doctors preocrlbc It. Price Me; |L KUBR DRPOb. SSth A MoQoo. CUy. ICUSSIHEDMSl . Yotvot Deaiw, ahatlod or pod; Com. May. Horsham. MlUet, Pan- awta. Onto. Wheat. Rpo. Tidehor CnHata. GKO. C. NUNN FERRY. GA.