Adventure Magazine Cover — page 109: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

lights of Peace “A broad streamer flared across the sky, and died out. Atoonyak’s movement quickened, as if at a sign, and his ‘chir- ring’ grew louder. A banneret came and vanished. The priest’s hands stretched in supplication. A phalanx of gilded spears shot upward as if in answer. His palms turned outward and the spears subsided. Once more they rose, this time half across the sky; wheeled, and disappeared. Then a baldric of bluish-tinted light connected pole with zenith. Others followed; twist- ing, shimmering things, fragile-looking as spun glass. “And every man jack of those who clustered around and gazed with wide-eyed awe at the mystic rite which this strange little old man observed would have sworn that the glittering spectacle in the heavens moved at his command. “The air became static. I felt the tremendous electrical energy which sur- charged the atmosphere stir my hair, and away from the noise of the spark could be heard a crinkly, snapping sound as if some one rubbed the fur of a large black cat. Atoonyak still wove his spell, always with the box before him. “Suddenly I forgot priest and aurora, for my spark, which had been keeping a roaring accompaniment to ‘his crooning, abruptly died out. I jumped for the wire- less-room, and a minute later Captain Millete, who had likewise noted the spark’s cessation, was with me. A look confirmed a guess. > pees Gees burned out and I’ll need hours to fix it,’ swore, not blasphemously, but feelingly. “He turned toward the door to do the only thing remaining to be done, when an exclamation from me halted him. “T had slipped on the receivers, just to hear the infernal destroyer’s operator seize his opportunity. And there he was, send- ing away like mad, as if fearful I would again ‘jam’ him out of the atmosphere. “And yet he finished his message, and waited for acknowledgment and none came. He began to call, first anxiously, then franti- cally. Yet the ether void remained silent as a crypt. “His message had not got over! “ “By ——, he’s blanketed!’ I shouted. And then, seeing the uncomprehending look on the skipper’s face, and partly to excuse my profanity, I hastened to explain. I reported, and the skipper - : 39 “Tf you take two C tuning-forks, such as are used in any singing-school, fasten one at each end of a table, and strike one, the other will vibrate in sympathy. That’s wireless. Yet, if you suddenly strike the table a sharp blow, both forks will stop vibrating instantly. That’s what has hap- pened here. “And it is the northern lighis that have struck that blow! “ “The Alaskan blanket, wireless opera- tors call it, and it is peculiar to these waters. When the lights are on, the working radius of a wireless set is cut down to but a few miles. For example, I can hear that de- stroyer’s set, three miles away, yet the fleet he is trying to reach, a hundred and fifty miles distant, may as well be on the other side of the globe. No wireless set con- structed by human hands can send out waves that will overcome the powerful electrical impulses from the pole. bands of light in the sky are wireless waves we can see. “““So long as the aurora continues to flare, he can’t reach his fleet.’ “Captain Millete stepped outside, where Atoonyak: still danced and invoked his flaming deity of the north. ““Make it strong,’ he told the priest, now trance-gripped with religious fervor. ‘Keep up that sun-dance until the Luzon gets here and I’ll fill your hide full of the best grub on the ship!’ “AND Atoonyak did. He did it not for grub, but—well, perhaps this was the first opportunity he had had to pay his respects to his beloved goddess of peace since he had ‘gone south with us weeks before, for as you have seen tonight the lights in the softer latitudes are unin- spiring, compared to those witnessed up here. -But all night long, while that ghostly flare—that silent semblance of limitless power—wove marvelous patterns in gos- samer in the heavens, the old priest urged it on with an energy almost incredible. ‘And when, just before dawn, it sud- denly withdrew, the fire burned out of him, and he collapsed, and his awe-smitten re- tainer, aided by kindly bluejackets, carried him below. I chose to believe that it was disappointment and not; exhaustion that had struck him down; for the lights did not flash on forever—somewhere in the world man still fought’ man. IOOkK Those — (E@) LAL