The Death Star E-Book

T.C. Bridges

• Herausgeber: Ktoczyta.pl
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

This old science fiction novel, Bridges, describes the Earth, largely devastated and devastated by terrible unrest in the solar system. The story tells about the adventures of seven people sailing in a wonderful airship of the future. There is a mortal battle between the two scientists: one is trying to build a new and better world on the ruins of the old, the other is a villain fighting to create a system that will finally destroy what remains on Earth.

Leseprobe

Contents

CHAPTER I. THE NEW SUN

CHAPTER II. DOOM!

CHAPTER III. NEWS FROM THE HELPERS

CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST BRUSH WITH THE BLACK SHIP

CHAPTER V. THE POISONED CREW

CHAPTER VI. TREACHERY

CHAPTER VII. SNOW

CHAPTER VIII. THE BELL RINGS

CHAPTER IX. BATTLE IN THE HEIGHTS

CHAPTER X. BLIZZARD

CHAPTER XI. LIMPING HOME

CHAPTER XII. THE GREAT RESOLVE

CHAPTER XIII. THE STRANGE PLANE

CHAPTER XIV. NEWS FROM NEW ZEALAND

CHAPTER XV. FIRST BLOOD

CHAPTER XVI. THE SECOND BLOW

CHAPTER XVII. "WE ARE WAITING NOW FOR GRYDE TO TALK TERMS"

CHAPTER XVIII. DEX WAS RIGHT

CHAPTER XIX. THE TRIUMPH OF GRYDE

CHAPTER XX. THE SECOND CHANCE

CHAPTER XXI. THE ATTACK ON THE ARMOURY

CHAPTER XXII. THE MAN FROM K.I

CHAPTER XXIII. THE GREAT CAVE

CHAPTER XXIV. THE TREASURE HOUSE

CHAPTER XXV. BAD BUSINESS

CHAPTER XXVI. UNDER FIRE

CHAPTER XXVII. MASS ATTACK

CHAPTER I. THE NEW SUN

WITH a faint whine from her compact little radium engine the helicopter shot almost straight up into the vast mass of brutally black cloud which overhung London. It was the third hour of the great darkness, and the city, with its tremendous towers of glassite gleaming with multi-coloured lights, vanished almost instantly in the smother.

Frank Lynd, tall, slim, grey-eyed, looking younger than his eighteen years, sat at the control board and watched the altimeter. Ten–fifteen–twenty thousand feet were passed, and still the little ship ploughed upwards through a darkness like the plague of Egypt. He glanced at the thermometer, then stared at it: by all laws it ought to be registering at a temperature many degrees below zero, yet the mercury stood at sixty above.

“What’s it mean?” he asked of his companion in a strained voice. Dex Halstow, Frank’s companion and best friend, was stocky, dark-haired, had high cheekbones, and eyes of a peculiar hazel green. He frowned.

“What’s the use of asking me? Something wrong with the works. I’d say it was the end of all things. Must be pretty bad, or Sir Daniel wouldn’t have been so urgent.”

“How the mischief can we find him in this?” asked Frank. His pleasant face looked pinched, and his grey eyes were full of trouble. Dex shrugged.

“What’s the use of worrying?” he growled. “We’ve got to die some time.” Frank’s face relaxed. He laughed–this was so like Dex.

“I don’t want to die yet,” he retorted; “and you don’t either. I believe it’s getting a bit lighter.” He peered upwards. Sure enough, the awful blackness was not quite so black. A sullen red glow began to break through it.

“The sun!” Frank cried.

“About time, too!” grumbled Dex. “Keep her to it.” But the little helicopter, built only for travel in the lower atmosphere, was very near her ceiling. The air at this great height was almost too thin to hold her spinning vanes. In the blackness and confusion which reigned below there had been no time or opportunity to get one of the stratosphere flyers which were used for all long-distance journeys. The needle of the altimeter wavered at twenty-three thousand. The temperature had dropped a little, but was still extraordinarily high.

“Drive her west,” Dex suggested. “It may not be so thick over the sea.”

“That’s no good,” Frank told him; “we shall miss Sir Daniel. He said he’d meet us over London. I’m going to give her all she’ll take. It’s a bit risky, but better than going down into that black pit again.” As he spoke his long slim fingers were busy with the controls. The faint whine of the engine grew to a thin shriek. The vanes were spinning at almost incredible speed, and the brave little machine began to rise again. The black mirk turned to grey, the red glow grew stronger.

“Now perhaps we’ll see something,” said Frank. Dex was staring upwards.

“You’ll see something, all right!” he said grimly. “We’ve got a new sun.” As he spoke the helicopter broke out through the upper level of the vast canopy which covered the planet into the cloudless blue of the upper atmosphere, and such a blast of heat and light struck upon her as dazzled and almost blinded her crew. There was the sun, a little past the zenith, but, as Dex had said, there was also a second sun flaming in the north-west. It was smaller than the real sun, but it was burning with terrific heat and trailing behind it a blazing, comet-like tail.

“A new star!” gasped Frank. “And–and look at the way it’s moving. You were right, Dex. This is the end of all things.”

“Not of us,” snapped Dex. For once the two young men seemed to have changed characters, and it was Dex who refused to be discouraged. “Can’t you trust Sir Daniel?”

“I’d trust him above any man,” Frank said; “but even he can’t stop that star from burning up the Earth.”

“Then he’ll probably take us to the moon,” Dex answered coolly. As he spoke there was a sound like a chiming clock striking, a musical rhythm of three notes. It came from a small box of silvery metal next the instrument board. “There he is, calling,” Dex added sharply as he switched on a loud speaker.

“Well done!” came a deep voice. “I am above you, but coming down. I shall drop beneath you and remain poised. You can settle on top of my ship and enter by the air lock. Be quick–every minute counts.” The last word had hardly died away before a great dark object dropped like a thunderbolt out of the glare above. It passed the helicopter at a distance of less than a quarter of a mile, stopped, steadied, and moved swiftly towards the little machine.

It was so swiftly done that all that Frank and Dex could see was that she was a dirigible built of metal of a glowing purple hue, and that she was evidently under perfect control. Next instant she was poised, steady as a rock, immediately beneath the helicopter. Frank lowered his little machine carefully until it came to rest on the curved top of the dirigible. With a click a door shot open and a head showed in the opening.

“Quick, you chaps,” came the same deep voice as had spoken through the telephone.

Frank and Dex needed no urging; they had not even time to marvel at the amazing phenomenon of a huge mass of metal remaining suspended, motionless, in mid-air. Certainly this ship had no fans or vanes to hold her. She had not even a propeller. The two dropped swiftly through the open trap, and the door instantly closed behind them.

“But our ‘copter–can’t we make her fast?” Frank asked. The big man beside him shook his head.

“No time. Every minute counts.”

“But she may fall on London–she may kill some one!”

The big man shrugged.

“It makes no difference. They will all be dead within a few hours.” The words sent a thrill of horror through Frank, but the other was quickly opening the inner door of the air lock, and the three stepped on to a stairway leading down to the centre of the great hull. A moment or two later they entered a large cabin lit by a soft wireless light. The air, though warm, was deliciously cool compared with the blinding blaze outside.

Their conductor motioned them to two chairs, and spoke through a phone standing on a metal table. Instantly the great ship was under way again, and, by the pressure which forced him back against the pneumatic cushions of his chair, Frank realised that the speed was far beyond anything that he had yet experienced.

“You’ll have to sit still for a bit,” said Sir Daniel Counsellor. “As I told you, every minute counts. The star is travelling faster than I imagined. If we are not under cover in something less than an hour we shall share the fate of the rest of mankind.”

Frank stared at the speaker. He knew him well enough, for Sir Daniel was his dead father’s cousin and had acted as his guardian for the past five years. He had always been extremely kind, and it was to him that Frank and his friend Dex Halstow both owed their technical training. Sir Daniel was nearly sixty, but looked no more than forty-five. He was a magnificent man, with a great leonine head, an immensely deep chest, and possessed of vast physical strength and endurance. His brain matched his body. For years past he had been looked upon by the Inner Circle, the world’s master scientists, as the greatest of them all. Yet he himself had never been a member of that all-powerful body, but had preferred to devote his life to private research in his great laboratory in the northern mountains. This spot he had chosen by reason of its freedom from earthquakes.

“You’re thinking I left it to the last minute, Frank,” Sir Daniel went on. “That is not my fault–the ship was only completed this morning. This is her first trip.

“Her first trip!” Frank exclaimed in amazement. “And you risked coming after us like this?”

“I needed you, Frank–you and Dex both. I only wish I had time to collect a few more of the younger generation, but this terrible thing has come upon us so suddenly.”

“What is it, sir,” Dex asked: “a comet?”

“I don’t know. It isn’t an ordinary meteorite, for it is giving off terrific heat. Possibly two of the smaller planetoids have collided. To tell the truth, I have been expecting something to happen for more than six months past, ever since that extraordinary explosion on Mars. That was one of my reasons for building this ship.”

“And where are we going?” Frank asked. “To the moon?”

“No. I don’t say I couldn’t reach it, for this vessel is built to travel in space. But, even if we reached the moon, what use would it be? There is no atmosphere. At present we are heading back to Ben Barran. We shall be there in less than an hour.”

“Ben Barran?” Frank repeated. “But you said every one on earth would perish!”

“No–not necessarily every one on earth. Most of them must die, but I am hoping that the precautions I have taken may save our lives.”

“And Thea?” Frank exclaimed sharply. “Will–will she be safe?”

“Thea is waiting in the Rock House,” said Sir Daniel gravely. “She will share our chances.” He stopped speaking, and fixed his eyes upon a small television screen in front of him. Under ordinary conditions the land above which they flew would have shown upon it, but now all that was visible was a vast sea of dark writhing vapours. Yet Sir Daniel seemed to know precisely the position of the ship, and presently, lifting a telephone, spoke into it.

“Cut the power, Trent. We’re going down.” Next instant the long cigar-shaped ship had plunged into the fog sea. She was still travelling at great speed, but nothing like so fast as before. Again Sir Daniel spoke to the unseen Trent.

“I’m taking charge. Cut off power the instant you get my signal.” He turned to Frank.

“It’s all right. Thea has switched on the neon flares. Yes, I see them.” He touched a button. The low thunder of the rocket gases ceased, the great ship floated stationary. Sir Daniel spoke again through the phone.

“Can you see the flare, Trent? All right. Push her on very gently. That’s it. She’s inside. Now lower her.” There was a slight jar, and again the great vessel was at rest. Sir Daniel stood up.

“We’re safe–for the moment, at any rate. Come–Thea will be waiting for us.” Frank and Dex followed him through a door in the ship’s side. They stepped out on to a platform, to see the ship lying in a cradle. On either side were walls of rock, and, above, a roof of solid granite. They were in a great cave lit by wireless globes. A tall, slim girl, with curly, golden-brown hair, came flying up the steps to the platform.

“Dad! Dad! Oh, I’m so glad you’re back! And Frank–and Dex.” She gave them each a hand and a flashing smile. “I’ve been so terribly anxious,” she went on. “The wireless is hopeless–I could only get a word now and then. They say something has happened to the Heaviside Layer, and that signals are going straight out into space.” She paused and the smile faded from her face. “Dad, is it true? Are we all done for?”

Sir Daniel put an arm round his daughter.

“It’s bad, my dear. It could hardly be worse. This comet, or whatever it is, is getting very close. Whether it will actually hit the Earth or not I cannot tell, but in any case the heat it generates must destroy a great part of life on this planet. Whether we shall escape or not I cannot tell, but we have a better chance than the rest. We have water and oxygen, and our screens will cut off some part at least of the heat. We must trust in Providence, Thea.” He paused and looked at the boys. “Have you fellows had anything to eat to-day?”

“We had breakfast, sir,” Frank answered. “I haven’t thought of food since.”

“We must eat, even if the skies fall,” said Sir Daniel. “Can you find us some food, Thea?”

Before she could answer there came a crackle from the wireless followed by words. They were broken and indistinct, yet audible.

“Professor Manikoff speaking from the North Polar Observatory. The comet is approaching the earth at an inestimable speed. It is already within the moon’s orbit. Impossible to say whether...” A frightful crackling cut off the next few words, then the voice came again: “Temperature here has risen to seventy. Fog coming up. Ice melting rapidly.” Another crackle. They waited, but nothing more came.

“Inside the moon’s orbit,” Sir Daniel repeated slowly. “That gives us something under four hours. Plenty of time to eat our luncheon,” he added with a firm smile.

CHAPTER II. DOOM!

FRANK never forgot that meal. A very good meal, for there was a cold pie, salad, dishes of fruit, and, for drink, a fruit sherbet. It was served by Sir Daniel’s old servant, Joe Cogan, who had been with him for thirty years.

All were wondering whether this was the last meal they would ever eat; yet they talked quite cheerfully, chiefly about Sir Daniel’s ship.

“Samarite, I call it,” said the scientist. “I’ve been after it for years, and got it at last. Gryde was after it, too, and it seemed just a chance which of us found it first. I was successful, and Gryde offered me half a million for the secret, but I refused. Gryde’s not the sort to be trusted with stuff like this. He’s too ambitious. He might have started in to smash things up.”

“But what is it?” Frank asked. “It must counteract gravity.”

Sir Daniel nodded.

“That’s it, Frank. The perfect anti-gravity alloy. As you see, she is covered with shutters of Samarite which can be adjusted from within at any required angle. When all are closed along the bottom, the ship becomes weightless. By adjusting them, some open, some closed, I can maintain her at any desired level. The hull is of zircon steel, hard as diamond, almost indestructible.”

“The space ship at last!” cried Frank.

“Space ship?” repeated old Cogan in a rusty voice. “Then the sooner we gets there the better, I’m thinking, for pretty soon there won’t be no earth left.”

“Too late for that, Cogan,” said Sir Daniel with a smile. “We’re safer here, inside this mountain, than we should be in space.”

“What beats me, sir,” said Dex, looking round, “is how you cut this tremendous great hole in solid granite.”

“It was quite simple. I used alberstine, the disintegrator invented by Georges Albert. The land is mine, all the materials were brought here by air, and, since I have plenty of electric power from the river, there were no difficulties.”

“You haven’t told us how you drive the ship,” Frank said.

“I use lazan in my rocket tubes for fast travelling, but I can switch over to a radium drive for a long journey.”

“She’s a miracle,” said Frank slowly, with his eyes on the ship.

“There–that’s a name for her, dad!” exclaimed Thea: “The Miracle.”

“It’ll be a miracle if she ever takes a second trip,” croaked Cogan; then, before any one could answer him, a low roar came to their ears. It grew louder, the whole mountain quivered slightly; there was a crash–then silence.

“It’s all right,” came Sir Daniel’s deep voice. “Just an avalanche. The heat is peeling the snow off the top.”

“It’s getting hotter, Daddy,” said Thea.

Sir Daniel nodded.

“And it’s going to be hotter still, my dear. This star is incandescent, and my chief fear is that it may burn up a large part of the Earth’s atmosphere. Without doubt it will scorch up all life over a wide surface of our planet.”

“Dad, tell me honestly–have we any chance?” Thea asked. Her face was rather pale, but her blue eyes were brave.

“We have a better chance than most, Thea. The doors of this cave are air-proof. We have oxygen and ice. If you want the whole truth, my chief fear is the earthquakes which are certain to occur as the star passes.”

Thea nodded.

“If we go, we all go together,” she said steadily. “That’s one comfort. But, oh, Dad, it’s terrible to think of all the poor people outside, who have no chance of escape.” Tears welled in her eyes, and for a moment she covered her face with her hands. A voice broke upon the silence. It came from a special short-wave radio which Sir Daniel had switched on.

“The Southern Hemisphere is still unaffected by the earthquakes which are beginning to rock North America. But at Cape Town the temperature has already risen thirty degrees, and the heat is unbearable.” A pause broken by crackling sounds, then the voice went on: “The ice has broken on the Great Lake, and Niagara Falls are blocked by a vast accumulation of floes. A tidal wave is sweeping the Northern Pacific. Temperature all over the world is rising.” Again a pause. “Fog covers this station, but at Vancouver the comet is visible. It floods the city with a dreadful crimson glare. People are dying from the intense heat. Here the temperature is–.” There was a crash, then silence.

“Poor devil! He’s fainted,” said Dex.

“Dead, more like,” put in Cogan gloomily. “And so shall we be if it gets much hotter. It’s eighty-five degrees even in here.”

“Don’t croak, but turn on the fans,” said Sir Daniel calmly. “We shan’t let the temperature rise any higher,” he continued. “I turned on the frost machine before I started for London, so we have a considerable store of dry ice. With the fans drawing the air across it, we shall do well enough.”

His calmness encouraged the others, yet the suspense was terrible. An hour had passed since their reaching the cave, but it would be nearly three hours more before they knew their fate. And all of them had sufficient knowledge of astronomy to be certain that if this celestial terror struck the earth anywhere within a thousand miles of their refuge, none of Sir Daniel’s precautions could save them. Trent came up. He had been busy inside the ship. He was a solid, square-set man, a first-class mechanic, the sort who speaks little but thinks a great deal.

“Sit down and have some food, Trent,” said Sir Daniel.

“Thank you, sir. The fog’s lifting.”

Thea jumped up.

“I’m going to the door to see. Come, boys.” The doors were of alumite, light, immensely strong, transparent as glass and ray- proof. What they saw outside was not reassuring. They looked into a dull glare like smoke rising from a furnace. It was not so much the fog thinning as the blaze from the new sun shining through the great pall of vapour which rose from the heated earth. Suddenly the solid rock beneath them quivered.

“Earthquakes starting,” said Thea. Frank shivered slightly. He had never before felt a quake. Somehow it seemed to bring the horror closer. He glanced at Thea. Was that bright, delightful girl doomed with the rest? Dex spoke.

“One thing I’m precious glad of,” he said solemnly: “I’ve no people to worry about.”

“Nor I,” said Frank, “except my cousins down in Surrey. I’d like to know how they’re making it.”

Dex shook his head. Thea turned and went back and they followed her.

Soon the earthquakes became almost continuous. Now and then a few small splinters fell from the roof, but there were no heavy falls. The granite was seamless. Yet the constant quivering made them all feel rather sick. The heat increased, but the thermometer did not go above ninety degrees. The dry ice saved them, but outside a dull glare beat upon the doors like a furnace blast. So two hours passed, the longest hours that any of them had ever known. Sir Daniel glanced at his wrist-watch.

“Nearly time,” he said quietly. “Within half an hour we shall know whether we are to live or die.” The words were hardly out of his mouth before a dull roar broke on their ears. They thought at first it was another, greater, quake, but Sir Daniel knew better.

“Wind,” he said.

“Wind?” repeated Frank.

“All the wind in the world, Frank. The greatest gale this world has ever known.”

The roar increased. It rose to a yelling shriek. They all rose and trooped towards the doors. As they reached them the fog was swept away as if by magic and instantly the air was full of such burning, blinding light that with one accord they flung themselves on the stone floor of the cave, covering their eyes from the blasting, intolerable glare. It was Sir Daniel who kept his head and told them what to do.

“Tie your handkerchiefs over your eyes, then get back into the inner cave.” He had to shout to be heard, for outside such a wind was blowing as never was known before on the face of the planet. They did as he told them, yet even in the inner cave the glare was like a furnace, and the heat was such that they could hardly breathe.

The blast of wind died almost as swiftly as it had come; then from outside they heard sharp cracklings, and clouds of smoke arose.

“The woods are afire,” said Dex. “This is the finish, isn’t it?”

“Keep your hearts up,” Sir Daniel bade them. “This comet, star, whatever it is, must be travelling at enormous speed. It may pass before everything is destroyed.”

“I’d like to see it,” Dex said. “Sir Daniel, if we put on smoked glasses, couldn’t we open the observation shutter up at the top there and take a look?”

“Try it if you like,” said Sir Daniel.

“Coming, Frank?” Dex asked, and the two, after fitting smoked glasses firmly over their eyes, set to climbing the metal ladder leading to the ventilation opening which had been cut in the roof of the cave. Standing on the platform, Dex slowly pushed the shutter back. The heat that fell on them was like the glare from an electric furnace. The very air seemed aflame. Shielding their eyes with their hands, they peered out. Frank gasped.

“The whole land’s afire,” he muttered. The sight was indeed appalling. The great fir plantation which lined the river for a mile or more was wrapped in flame; the birches higher up were mere smoking skeletons; the grass itself was nothing but white ash, and clouds of steam rose from the stream at the bottom of the valley. The whole countryside glowed like molten brass.

But the awful thing was the comet itself, a globe of fire larger than the sun at midday, coruscating with leaping flame. It seemed almost overhead and travelling with incredible speed.

“The Day of Judgment,” Dex muttered as he pulled back the shutter. “It’s the finish, Frank. Let’s get back. If we’ve got to die, let’s all die together.” He wrung his hand. “I’ve burnt my fingers,” he added with a wry grin. “That metal is pretty near red-hot.”

Half-blinded, the two groped their way back down the ladder. Frank had just reached the bottom, and Dex was only a few steps up, when there came a crash so tremendous that the great mass of Ben Barran quivered like a jelly. Dex, flung from the rungs by the fearful concussion, fell upon Frank. Both sprawled on the floor, stunned, completely knocked out.

CHAPTER III. NEWS FROM THE HELPERS

DEX was the first to come round. He lay in pitch darkness, with a dull roaring in his ears, and it was some time before he realised that he was still alive.

“Frank!” he called hoarsely; but there was no reply. “Frank!” more loudly, and all of a sudden a light sprang out, dazzlingly bright in the gloom. Cogan was standing over him with a Loom lamp in his hand.

“You alive, Mr. Dex? I made sure you was dead.”

“Frank–how’s he?”

“Breathing,” Cogan told him. “Blest if he ain’t alive, too!”

“But what’s happened? The comet–where’s it gone?”

“Busted! That’s what Sir Daniel says.”

“And that noise?”

“It’s rain. All that there smoke and vapour coming down again. It’s raining like it never rained before. First we’re baked, now we’re going to be drowned.” Dex sat up and looked at Frank. Just then Frank’s eyes opened.

“I–I thought I was dead,” he said thickly.

“Don’t blame you,” said Dex. “I was sure I was! Cogan says the old comet’s gone bust.” Frank’s eyes widened.

“Then that’s what we heard–I thought it was the end of the world.”

“So did I.” He paused. “I wouldn’t wonder if it was,” he added gravely. “Looks to me as though we’re about the only folk left alive.”

“What’s that roaring?” Frank asked.

“Rain, Cogan says. Fire and water–I don’t see how anything can survive the two.”

“Sir Daniel, is he all right? And Thea?” Frank asked sharply.

“They was knocked out like the rest of us,” Cogan told him. “But they’ve come round. But I don’t reckon any one else is left alive,” he added gloomily. Frank climbed to his feet.

“Water’s better than fire, Dex. I feel I can breathe for the first time for hours. Hallo! Here’s Sir Daniel.”

“Well, we’ve come through it, lads,” said the scientist.

“But has any one else?” Frank asked gravely.

“That I can’t tell. I fancy the whole Northern Hemisphere is in ruins, but there may be survivors in the South.”

“It’s an awful business,” said Frank with a shudder.

“Awful, indeed; and the more reason why we should be grateful we have been spared; and still more grateful that our ship remains uninjured, and that we have food and stores for at least a month.”

“Looks as though we’ll need a ship to get out of here. The whole world will be under water if this goes on,” said Dex. “Let’s go and take a squint, Frank.”

“And you might open the doors,” said Sir Daniel.

It was wonderful to open the doors and to feel the gush of cool, wet air that rushed in, replacing the stagnant heat. But outside they could see nothing at all except one solid cascade of water. Already torrents were rushing down the hillside, while from below there was a thunder like the Niagara rapids. The boys stood awhile, breathing deeply. Though it was warm as a summer day, the temperature was falling fast. Frank shivered.

“I feel absolutely cold. I’m going to put on a coat.”

“Me, too,” said Dex. “I say, Frank, we’d better take care of our clothes. The next suits we’ll probably have to make for ourselves.”

“And then there won’t be anything to make ’em of,” Frank answered.

“Don’t croak,” said Sir Daniel.

They had supper, and then they were suddenly so sleepy that they decided to turn in. The nerve strain had been terrific, and the frightful heat had tired them sorely. In another hour they were all in bed, and Frank did not stir until his alarm roused him at seven next morning.

He dressed quickly, and went to the mouth of the cavern. The rain had stopped, grey dawn was just dimming the darkness in the east, and the air bit cold–cold with the chill of a mid- winter morning. It was still too dark to see anything, so he went back, closing the doors behind him. To his surprise Sir Daniel was seated at the short-wave special radio, their private instrument which they had used for speaking to the firms from whom they ordered their goods, and to aircraft flying overhead. What was still more surprising, Sir Daniel was wearing a pair of the old-fashioned earphones.

Sir Daniel raised his hand for silence, and Frank waited. He waited a long time. Now and then Sir Daniel spoke in a language which Frank did not understand. It was more than a quarter of an hour before Sir Daniel at last ceased speaking and removed the phones.

“You don’t mean you’ve got some one?” cried Frank eagerly.

Sir Daniel smiled as he looked up.

“Yes, there are still survivors, Frank. But wait until after breakfast. Then I will tell you all a secret which I have kept during the whole of my life, and have never yet mentioned to a soul.” Frank found Dex helping to lay the table, and told him what he had heard. Dex looked serious.

“You don’t reckon the boss has gone a bit nutty?” he remarked.

“Nothing like that,” returned Frank promptly. “He’s got something for us–I can swear to that–something that pleases him mightily. You ought to have seen how his face lit up.”

Dex turned a quantity of knives and forks out of a basket.

“I’m mighty glad you think he’s all right, Frank. And I’m equally pleased to hear there’s some one alive besides ourselves. It would be a pretty ghastly business to find we were the only folk left on this planet.”

“You’re right,” said Frank seriously. And just then Thea and Cogan came in from the kitchen with the dishes. Frank found his appetite in spite of his excitement. Sir Daniel ate little and slowly, as was his custom. It was not until the table had been cleared and the dishes washed that he summoned all the rest into the inner cave.