The End of Time Page 4
showing those rows of teeth like picketfences. "I suppose we're all here on the same mission: to find asolution for the mystery of the world's paralysis." The apparition lita long and bloated cigarette and through the acrid smoke surveyed themquizzically.
"I'm Jack Baron, formerly on the staff here, and this is June Manthis,daughter of Dr. Frank Manthis, head of the chemical researchdepartment." The engineer winced as Solinski enfolded his hand in aclammy grip.
"Ah yes, I know the doctor by hearsay. A great scientist. He has alovely daughter"--bowing deeply to June as he let his beady eyeswander over her face and figure. "Perhaps we can join forces, althoughI must admit I have abandoned hope. It is God's will." He rolled hiseyes toward heaven, then riveted them once more upon June.
"Why, certainly." Jack was striving to overcome his growing dislike."We'll be driving back in a few minutes. Would you care to come withus?"
"No." The pupilless eyes skittered toward Baron for a moment. "I knowthe doctor's address. I will come to visit you soon. Now I must begoing." Solinski turned as if to depart, then strode to the desk andlooked down at the mass of equipment. "Ah, super-short wave tubes, Isee. Very clever." His dexterous fingers lingered over them a moment.Then he bowed and was gone.
* * * * *
The two remained staring at the empty doorway.
"I--I wish he'd been dead--sleeping," whispered June at last, twistingher handkerchief with trembling fingers. "He--I didn't like the way hekept looking at me."
"He seemed all right to me." Jack tried to forget his own prejudice."He's willing to help us."
"Might he not be one of the hashish addicts? Those eyes--the pupilswere mere pinpoints--and those evil-smelling cigarettes."
"Then why should he have offered to help?" puzzled Jack. "He couldhave killed us."
"Nevertheless I hope we've seen the last of him. Are you aboutthrough? Let's get out of this awful place. He looked like a mummy!"
They drove back to the apartment so completely preoccupied that bothforgot to obtain the drug which the doctor had requested.
"Yes, I've heard of him," Manthis said after he had been informed ofthe encounter. "A naturalized Russian. Used to do quite a bit ofvaluable work in various fields of physics. But he was some sort ofradical--seems to me an old-fashioned anarchist--and not popular. Hedropped out of sight several years ago. I presumed he was dead."
They soon had the new equipment installed and again began exploringthe wave bands, beginning with the comparatively lengthy ones andworking down into those only slightly longer than light. It wastedious work, but all were by now as adept as Jack in combing theether and their task progressed rapidly. Despite the labor, however,nothing could be heard. There was only the universal, breathlesssilence. At times they moved to the commercial bands and tried to pickup the stations they had heard on the previous day, but even therethey met with failure.
* * * * *
By the evening of the third day they had left the wave bands whichcould be measured in meters and were exploring those strange andalmost wholly uncharted depths of the ether which must be calculatedin centimeters. There at last luck favored them. It was Jack whocaught a strange pulsating tone on the three-centimeter band. It roseand fell, rose and fell, then died away like the keening of a lostsoul.
"Listen," he whispered. "Plug in here. I've found something."
June and the doctor followed his instructions. Delicately fingeringthe coils, Baron picked up the sound again, only to lose it. Then itcame once more. This time he followed it as it changed to the fivecentimeter band. Back and forth it went as though weaving an intricateand devilish web.
"What do you make of it?" queried the doctor at last.
"Don't know." Jack bit his lips. "It's no natural phenomenon, I'llswear. Somebody is manipulating a broadcasting station of terrificpower not far from here and playing with that wave as a helmsmanbrings a sailing ship into the wind and lets her pay off again."
"What do we do now?" The little chemist, finding his theory apparentlyconfirmed, was at a loss. "Could we wreck that station?"
"Fat chance!" The engineer laughed bitterly as he reached for acigarette. "Whoever has conceived that bit of hellishness is wellguarded. The three of us wouldn't have a ghost of a show. What I can'tunderstand is--"
"No use talking about theories now." Manthis sat down, crushed.Dropping his head in his bands, he pulled his few hairs as though thatmight drag out an idea. "What's to be done? Do you realise that wehold more responsibility than ever man has held before? Caesar!Napoleon! They were pikers. We have to save a world."
* * * * *
Silence greeted his outburst. The scratching of a match as June lit acigarette sounded like an explosion. Then the smoke eddied undisturbedwhile the three stared vacantly into space, trying to think.
"Couldn't we"--the girl swallowed hesitantly as she realized herignorance of radio engineering--"couldn't we interfere with that wave?Interfere with the wave which already is breaking up the thoughtwaves. Cancel its power. Oh, Jack, you must know what I mean."
"With this dinky, five-kilowatt station? We couldn't reach Yonkersagainst the power they've got. By Jove!" He leaped to his feet as anew thought struck him. "Maybe we could just wake up New York. Gethelp from the police then! Smash that other station afterwards!"
"But we don't know whether interference would break the spell,"interposed the practical doctor. "And it will take a lot of practiseto follow that wave. It jumps back and forth like a grasshopper."
"And if we don't do it right the first time, whoever is operating thatstation will be down on us like a ton of brick," admitted Jack.
"Let's get the child we saved," suggested June. "We can bring her uphere. Then we'll need only a little power, just enough to be effectivein this room, to bring her to life if we can. They wouldn't hear ourwave."
"Great!" Jack bent over and kissed her. "You're a real help. I'll beback in a minute." He dashed out. Soon they heard his step on thestairs and he reappeared, tenderly bearing his golden-haired burden.
"Now, June," he commanded briskly, "place her in a comfortableposition on the work table while I get ready." He began arrangingequipment and connecting it with the bank of storage batteries.
"Shall I adjust a headset for her?" asked the impatient doctor.
"Be yourself!" Jack placed a crooked vacuum tube near the child's headand clamped two flat electrodes on her temples. "This wave must actdirectly on the brain. The sense of hearing has nothing to do with it.
"All right, Sleeping Beauty." He stretched the kinks out of his achingback. "Let's see what we can do for you. Pardon me, Doctor, if Iseemed rude. This is ticklish work. Pick up the outside wave for me.Thanks. Now I've got our dinky sending station set on the same wavelength at a different frequency. It's adjusted so that as I keep intouch through this tuning coil, our wave will fluctuate over the samepath as the other. It should take six or eight hours to overcome theeffect on her, I judge. Here we go. June, you'd better get yourselfand your dad some food. Doctor, you examine the kid from time to time.In an hour or so June can relieve me."
He pressed a switch. The tubes filled with a green glow.
* * * * *
Two hours passed, and the sun was sinking behind the trees of the parkin a bloody haze when Jack at last signaled for June to handle thedials. For a time he guided her slim fingers. Then, as she caught thetrick, he rose and stretched his cramped muscles.
"Don't lose the wave for a moment or we'll have to start all overagain," he warned. "Now for dinner!"
She nodded and, frowning slightly, bent over the dials.
At that moment there came a heavy knock on the apartment door.
"Who's that?" gasped Manthis, his face turning grey.
"Probably Solinski," replied Jack, feeling his spine crawl as heremembered the moldy Russian. "Fine time he chose for a visit."
"Shall I let him in?"
"Don't see what else there is to do."
"Good evening," cried their guest as Manthis opened the door. "Ah, Dr.Manthis, I believe. I have heard so much about your work." His hoarseyet ringing voice made the little man start violently and caused Juneto shake her head in annoyance as the sound interfered with thehumming of the vagrant wave. "Sorry I could not come earlier."Solinski advanced into the laboratory, giving the effect of drivingthe chemist before him.