The Earth-Tube (12 page)

He was listening carefully as Henderson talked, for he was about to engage, with the young scientist, in an adventure which might well be more dangerous and more important than any he had undertaken in his life. The President of the Pan-Americas was also deeply interested. The three of them were sitting in Dr. Scott’s library.

“I will not attempt disguise,” said King. “If there were time, disguise might be the wiser way. But we must learn these secrets quickly now. Already they have Lima and Callao, and Para will fall before the end of the week.”

The President nodded. The position of the new capital of South America, at Caracas, was already precarious because of the recent advances of the Asians, and half the population of upper Brazil, Colombia, Guiana, and even Venezuela had fled before the slowly approaching machines of the enemy. They seemed now everywhere in the south, as invincible as ever. A body of them had moved from Sucre to La Paz, thence to Mollendo and Lima. Another group had followed around the Atlantic coast, taking Bahia and Pernambuco, and was now moving upon Para. A third and larger fleet, fully equipped and accompanied by hundreds of convoy tanks, had plunged boldly into the Matto Grosso, working through the almost impenetrable jungle northward. Already, instead of foundering in the marshes as had been predicted, this ghastly company was approaching the main stream of the Amazon and would undoubtedly cross. The high and rugged Andes had served as a barrier to their further progress on the west coast for the moment, but at the rate they were advancing elsewhere they would soon have the whole continent to themselves,

“We will start to-night,” said King quietly. “We will take the swiftest plane we can find, but one large enough for four or five passengers so that we may bring back some of this metal if it is possible. I will be ready to leave at dark.”

“But what is your plan?” the President asked. King hesitated. “The fact is,” he said, “I haven’t any. yet. We will fly directly to the head of the earth-tube, and there we will size up the situation. I think it is foolish to try spying tactics in the enemy military camps. I propose, if it is possible, to land directly on the island at the head of the earth-tube and proceed from there.”

The President started involuntarily. “My God,” he exclaimed, “you are going directly to their stronghold! It is extremely dangerous.”

“The time is short; we must risk anything for this information,” King answered.

The pilot extended his hand, gripping King’s warmly. “I’ll be at the flying field at dusk,” he said.

“The plane will be fully equipped with the things you mentioned.”

The President remained alone with King for a parting sentence. “My boy,” he said, “you must not fail. Good luck!” He took King’s hand and pressed it firmly. “We’ll do what we can for you, but you realize as well as any that your fate will be in your own hands. It is a sorry day when we must take a chance like this!”

Without another word he followed Jenson out of the room, and King was left alone. Quickly he turned and went into Professor Scott’s room, where the old man, attended by nurses and physicians, was recovering slowly. Anna was there, sitting beside her father. She stood up when King came in and ran over to him.

“I will go at dusk,” King announced. “It will mean everything or nothing.”

Anna did not reply. The aged scientist raised himself slowly among his pillows.

“In a few days I will be back in the laboratory,” he objected, “and then, if we have luck, we will reproduce and perfect the disintegrating ray. Maybe it would be better for you to wait. “

“No. not on such a slender hope. I have no doubt but that you will find the ray and harness it. But it may take weeks. months. Already they are swarming toward the isthmus, and engineers have begun to discuss the widening and deepening of the Panama and Nicaraguan canals to prevent their tanks from crossing.”

Dr. Scott nodded weakly. “Absurdities pile upon absurdities,” he replied, “and our people, led by a foolish military machine, delude themselves into feelings of security when it is as plain as day that nothing at present within our grasp will stop the march of the enemy.”

He reached out and took King’s hand impulsively. “But why,” he asked, “must it be you? For five years I have looked upon you as my son. “ He looked quickly away. “Now, of course. you may come through. But after what they’ve done to our other spies. “

“You must get strong as rapidly as you can,” replied King. “You must work on that ray, no matter what happens. And as for Anna here. she will be your helper in my place while I am gone.

“But. I won’t fail. I have a small sending apparatus which I will wear with me, and with which I can signal you from time to time. You will know whether I am well. But even if you do not hear, don’t give up hope. I will come through. I’m sure of it!”

Anna followed him out into the laboratory, linking her arm in his with sisterly affection. He glanced suddenly around the old familiar room, and was conscious of a keen nostalgia at the prospect of leaving all of the things which in a few years had become the whole of his life.

“Two weeks. or three at the most, I will be gone,” he was thinking. But perhaps it would be longer than that.

“This war has interrupted our happiness in this house,” he said softly after a while. “But it will not be for long, Anna. I will be back, and we will have peace.”

“Of course you’ll come back, King,” she replied. “Everything depends upon it.” Then, as if fearing that she had been too brusque, she went on, taking hold of his arm impulsively. “Of course you know what you mean to us here. You are like a member of the family. You are the only brother I’ve ever had. “

She turned back to practical matters after a moment.

“Now you must get yourself ready for the trip,” she said, in a matter-of-fact voice. “You must not forget the radio and your automatic pistol. Here. I will help you get your things together. I want to have a part in this adventure. I envy you.

“Think of it, King! You will be the first man of our race to see the earth-tube and these Asian wonders! While we are back here in the laboratory guessing about these things, you will be seeing and measuring them. You will be learning secrets which we have only been able to hint at!”

He caught her hand in a warm grip.

“You are fine!” he exclaimed. “You’ve got the right idea!”

CHAPTER IV

THE SHINING CITY

I

THEY saw, after they had circled over it for a great while, that many things had changed about the huge metal shield over the mouth of the earth-tube since the first inspection flight made by Dr. Scott and the Secretary of War. Now its edges had been extended and brought close to the ground. It was no longer a huge umbrella, held up by metal piers, but a bright, metallic dome instead, lying like an overturned saucer on the little island which had been artificially placed there in the ocean. The total breadth of the dome now appeared to be nearly three and a half miles. There was only a little unused land showing around the edge, where the surprised and angry sea beat and dashed continually as if to sweep aside this unnatural obstruction. In the middle, King estimated, the shield rose nearly two thousand feet above the level of the island. The whole structure was gracefully molded. It was an amazing thing to come upon it suddenly, out of the rainy air.

These Asians were building for permanency; that was evident in every line and curve. Not only had the shield of the earth-tube been gracefully completed, but the covering of the causeway was also beautifully and artistically finished. It stretched off across the intervening miles of sea to the mainland like a mighty arm, and ended in a rounded building, like a clenched fist, which rested upon the shore. Through this pipe line from the other hemisphere were now going the armies of the invasion, the slaves and their masters, the tanks and the throwers of horrible rays, the handlers of scalding steam and many another unknown and dreaded weapon. Here in the huge armored dome worked the engineers and mechanics who every day landed an earth-car and launched another, and here also lived the shrewd masters of military strategy, no doubt, who were planning the invasion and dictating its every move. In the dome below them, King knew, were the brains of the war, at least as far as the Western Hemisphere was concerned. And into that dome he must get, somehow. In there he must see without being seen. He must observe and remember and understand and in the end escape with his precious information. And above all, he must act quickly. A week. perhaps two at the most, must be sufficient for the work.

“As soon as it gets dark enough, land me on the edge of the island,” he directed the pilot. “With this amphibian you can drop down into the sea a mile or so away, and I will row to shore in the collapsible boat.”

Jenson signaled assent, and turned the plane away in a high arc to fly out the time at a safe distance. It was nearly eleven o’clock at night before King decided that it was sufficiently dark to make the attempt, and not before then did the plane return and settle gracefully in the ocean. King threw overboard the gas-inflated boat with which he had come prepared. Extra bottles of inflating-gas he stowed into it with the other equipment, and taking a paddle which had been fastened in clips under the gunwale, he shouted cheerfully to Jenson and rowed away. He could not see the island because of the darkness, but he knew its general direction and pulled for it with strong, steady strokes. Behind him, after a few minutes, he heard the loud clatter of the plane as, gaining momentum, it soared up from the water and left him alone.

For a moment he felt a weakness in his limbs. Now the die was cast and the adventure really begun! To the skill of his mind he must now add physical skill as well. In addition, he must have no end of luck if this expedition were to be even a partial success.

The ungainly boat tossed upon the waves and drifted uncertainly for a little, and then King, regaining control of himself, took up the oar with renewed determination and tore at the water which lapped against the side.

He kept straining his eyes to catch sight of the island ahead until he heard a loud roaring on his right. That would be the waves breaking on the shore, he reasoned, and steered toward the sound. In a few minutes the blackness of the island and its great metallic hood loomed hideously before him in the night, its edges at the sea level ringed with froth and white water from the fury of the breakers. He handled the paddle dexterously, and guiding the giddy, rounded boat half by instinct, he beached it between waves and dragged it up on shore before he paused to look around.

Not more than a hundred feet away arose the stately rounded wall which curved upward and inward to form the metallic cap. With great excitement he collapsed the boat and attached the extra bottles of inflating gas. A turn of the valve would liberate the carbon dioxide into the float tanks, and the boat would be again ready for use. He folded it all up into a small bundle and concealed it beneath the rocks. In order that he might find it again he arranged nine stones in the form of a cross upon the ground, and observed his compass. He was on the east side of the island. The stone cross would guide him to the exact spot when he came back again.

From how many miles down in the earth, King wondered, had those stones come to aid him in this quest against his country’s enemies?

It was chilly, for the autumn in the Southern Hemisphere was coming on. He drew his coat closely about him and went over to the metallic wall. It was finished to the ground, and probably the metal sides went deep beneath the surface, too. Carefully he felt his way around it toward the right, in the direction of which, he remembered, there was an aperture.

The harsh roaring which he had mistaken earlier for the sound of the breakers seemed to have greatly increased. He noticed that the whole island was trembling. The curious clattering he had experienced once before was now coming down upon his ears from overhead, where the tremendous air-jet was escaping furiously into the sky.

King knew that signal. The earth-car was about to arrive from the Eastern Hemisphere. and he must hurry and find the aperture before it came!

He ran rapidly along the wall, seeking the opening.

II

Before him suddenly rose the portal, tremendous, marvelously proportioned. the gateway to the stronghold of the mysterious and mighty Asians. It was not, as he had supposed during his aerial investigation, a jagged opening where the wall on that side had been left unfinished. It was, instead, a colossal gate, arch-shaped, and carved at the top and along the sides with a curious pattern of designs. criss-cross planes, spears and shields, and an endless repetition of modernistic and mechanical figures.

The wall at that point appeared to be about two feet thick. On the inside of the portal, closing down like a gigantic eyelid, was a door of metal which slid in oiled grooves. The aperture was about half open, so that the large, rather eye-shaped opening had the appearance of a colossal wink. The metal was gleaming and bright, as along the outer walls. Viewed in the glimmer of light from the cloud-wreathed stars and the waning moon, augmented by a kind of phosphorescence which came from within, the gate was at once weird and beautiful. The extreme modernism of its decoration, the perfect proportions of its contours, produced a feeling of exaltation, mingled with horror.

What civilization produced this tremendous image of an all-seeing eye? No race but one of infinite cruelty could have expressed itself so; no people but one of vision and extraordinary technical skill could have conceived and executed it. There was about the entrance to the earth-tube cap a beauty which at once thrilled and terrified. When he came upon it suddenly out of the night King drew up short, startled by its magnificence.

Involuntarily he looked up. Hundreds of feet above, where the gate arched and joined the shield, there was an inscription of some kind, in characters he could not read. The bare bright walls swept upward and away on every side. Over this tremendous gate was the only marking of any kind to be seen upon the whole of that polished expanse. The inscription may well have been, King thought as he gazed upward again more carefully at the amazing portal, the Dantean warning: “All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.”