Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

THE PLAGUE OF THE LIVING DEAD | 19 a certain night, the officials had gathered in con- ference to pass upon the question of lifting the. quarantine and giving up in despair, trusting to keeping the Living Dead confined indefinitely within the wire barrier. : “That,” declared Colonel Shorham, the military commandant, “is, or rather will be, impossible. As Doctor Farnham has told you, these beings can propagate their kind, and, as you have seen for yourselves, new monsters are being constantly formed by the union of various portions of indi- viduals, So far, thank God, the things have made no attempt to tear down or scale the barrier, but _ sooner or later, they will. If they possessed reason they would have done so long ago, but some day— perhaps to-morrow, perhaps not for a century— they will decide to move, and the stoutest barri- cade man can erect will not hold. them in check. Why, one of those spider-like monsters, consisting of legs and arms, could clamber over the wire as readily as a fly can walk on yonder wall. And by the time they do this they may number thousands in place of hundreds. And do not forget, gentle- men, that water is no barrier to these terrible beings. They cannot be drowned, and hence they may be carried by sea to distant lands and may spread to the uttermost ends of the earth. Ter- rible and blasphemous as it may sound, I wish to God that another eruption might occur and that a voleano might break forth under the Living Dead and' blow them into space. Personally— He was interrupted by a shout from Doctor Farnham, who, leaping to his feet, excitedly drew the attention of everyone to himself. “Colonel!” he cried, “to you belongs the credit of having solved the problem. You spoke of blow- ing the Living Dead into space. That, gentlemen, is the solution. We will not need to invoke Divine aid in creating the volcano to do this, but we will provide the means ourselves.” The others looked at one another and at the enthusiastic scientist in utter amazement. Had his worries driven him mad? What was he driv- ing at? B° Doctor Farnham was most evidently sane and most obviously in earnest. “I quite real- ize how visionary the idea may appear to you, gentlemen,” he said, striving to speak calmly. “But I think you will all accept it after my most unfortunate discovery, which resulted, it is true, in our present predicament, but which, neverthe- less, proved that the most visionary and seemingly impossible things may be possible. I feel sure, I repeat, that after what you have all seen, you will agree with me that my present scheme is not either visionary or impossible. Briefly, gentle- men, it is to construct an immense cannon, or per- haps better, an artificial crater, beneath the Liv- — ing Dead and blow every one of the beings into space. In fact, blow them to such an immense distance that they will be beyond the attraction of the earth and will either land on the moon or will forever revolve, like satellites, about our planet.” As he finished, silence fell upon those present. A few weeks previously they would have jeered, scoffed, ridiculed the idea or would have felt sure he was mad. But too many seemingly insane things had occurred to warrant a hasty judgment, and all were thinking deeply. At last, a dignified white-haired gentleman rose to his feet and cleared his throat. He was Sefior Martinez, a descendant of one of the old Spanish families who had orig- inally owned the island, and a retired engineer of world-wide fame. “I feel,” he began, “that Doctor Farnham’s sug- gestion might be carried out., I have only two questions in my mind as to its feasibility. First; the cost of the undertaking which would be pro- digious—far more than the somewhat depleted treasury of Abilone would permit. And second; by what form of explosive the force could be gen- erated which would project the beings so far that they would not fall back upon earth, and being ims mortal, still be living things?” “The expense,” announced Doctor Farnham, as Sefior Martinez resumed his seat, “will be borne by me. My fortune, which originally amounted to something over three millions, has remained prac- tically untouched for the past forty-five years, for I have expended but a small fraction of the income. As it was entirely due to my interference with the laws of a most wise and divine Creator that the Plague of the Living Dead has been brought upon your island, I feel that it is no more than just that I should devote my last cent and my last effort to righting the wrong. As for the explosive, Sefior Martinez, that will be a combination of nature’s forces and modern high-power explosives. Beneath the area occupied by the Living Dead is a deep- seated fissure connecting, in all probability, with the Sugar Loaf volcano. By excavating and tun- neling we will enlarge that fissure to form an im- mense hollow under the area we desire te destroy, and we will fill the hollow with all the highest ex- plosives known to science, and which can be pur- chased with my wealth. In the meantime, the San Marco river will be diverted from its present course and will be led to a tunnel which will be cut through the rim of the old crater. By means of electricity we will arrange to explode the charge under the Living Dead at the precise instant when the water of the river is released, and emptying into the crater, creates a steam pressure sufficient to produce an eruption. That pressure, gentlemen, being released by the detonation of the explosives will unquestionably follow the line of least resist- ance and will burst forth as a violent sporadic eruption coincidentally with the force of the ex- plosives, and will, I feel sure, project the Living Dead beyond the attraction of our planet.” — For a brief instant silence followed the scien tist’s words, and then the hall echoed to uproarious applause. When the demonstrations had at last subsided, the elderly engineer again spoke. “As an engineer, I approve most heartily of Doctor Farnham’s ideas,” he announced. “A few years ago such an undertaking would have been impossible, but sci- ence in many lines has advanced by leaps and bounds. We now know the exact pressure gen- erated by water in contact with molten igneous rocks at various. depths,—thanks to re Kev, C (0) mick Oks ‘ce