Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

“re 20 of Signor Banardi and Professor Svenson, who de- voted several years to intensive studies of volcanic activities in their respective countries of Italy and Iceland. We now know the exact pressure of steam essential to produce a volcanic eruption, and we also knew the precise temperature at that steam pressure. Hence it will be a comparatively simple matter to devise means of detonating explosives coincidentally with the eruptive forces, as Doctor Farnham has outlined. Also, the modern explo- sives, which I presume would be the recently dis- covered YLT, and the even more powerful Mozan- ite, have already proved to possess sufficient force to project a missile several thousand miles beyond the earth’s atmosphere, and in all probability be- yond the attractive forces of our sphere. The one really great difficulty which I foresee will be to calculate the exact diameter and depth of the ex- cavation and to confine the Living Dead to the area immediately above it. I am most happy, gen- tlemen, to offer my poor services in this cause, and if you desire it, I will most gladly place my knowledge of engineering at the disposal of the government and will be honored by collaborating with Doctor Farnham.” Amid vociferous applause Sefor Martinez took his chair, and the governor rose and thanked him and accepted his offer. He was followed by Colonel Shoreham, who expressed his gratification in hav- ing inadvertently suggested the means of destroy- ing the Living Dead, and who offered a plan for confining the beings to the restricted area desired. “It is possible, I think,” he said, “to gradually push the wire barrier nearer and nearer the se- lected spot. It will, I take it, require some con- siderable time to complete excavations and prepare for the grand finale, and in the interim we can move the barrier forward an inch or two at a time. As the Living Dead have no intelligence they will never notice the change, and even if they do they will not understand what it means. As soon as Doctor Farnham and Sefior Martinez have decided upon the exact spot, and the extent of the area to be blown up, I will commence moving the barrier.” This suggestion appeared to solve the last diffi- culty, and, vastly relieved that at last there seemed to be hopes of forever destroying the Plague of the Living Dead, the meeting broke up after voting carte blanche to those who had volunteered to see the scheme through. There is little more to be told. Everything pro- ceeded smoothly. The precise area which was to be blown into space was determined, and true,to his word, Colonel Shoreham moved the steel bar- rier forward until the inhuman, though human, monsters within were confined to the selected spot. Meanwhile, with millions at their disposal, the engineer and his assistants diverted the San Marco river, cut a tunnel through the base of the thin outer rim of the crater, and held the pent-up stream in check by a dam which could be destroyed ' by a single explosion set off by an electrical con- nection and detonator. Beneath the doomed be- ‘ings, great electrically-driven machines were tun- neling deep into the bowels of the mountain slope, and each hour, as the excavation deepened, the heat increased and scalding steam jets were more ~ ~, at.) "es , 4% . $ AeA Ps A <3 sfy. : os es Sed ieart Sal far MBs ke tk b 4s Y ab ipe Tals 4 pres h den x a re ¢) Rie * tt VIP A EES ORNS Cee Sree AOR Ye Ra ee feet, ALAND Biba ARR Ran eg SA Wit, hee hae AMAZING STORIES frequently met, all of which was most promising as proving that the active crater was not many feet below the spot wherein the work was going on. At last Senor Martinez feared to go deeper. Beneath the vast hole the roaring and rumbling of the voleano’s forces could be heard; the steam is- sued from every crevice and crack in the rocks, and the temperature registered over two hundred degrees. Carefully, hundreds of tons of the most powerful of up-to-date explosives were piled within the vast. excavation—tons of the recently discov- ered YLT, which had entirely superseded TNT and was nearly one hundred times as powerful, and tons of the even more powerful Mozanite—until the cavity was completely filled with the explosives. At last all was in readiness. Delicate instruments had been placed deep within the crater, instru- ments which at predetermined temperatures would send a charge of electricity to the detonating caps in the explosive-filled excavations, and instruments which would accomplish the same result when the steam pressure reached a prearranged pressure. OR weeks, the inhabitants had been warned away from the vicinity of activities, though there was little need of this, for few persons cared to visit that portion of the island. And in order that persons in distant parts of the island might not be unduly alarmed, notices had been posted stating that at any time a stupendous explosion might occur, but which would cause no damage to | outlying districts. Far more excited and nervous than they had ever been in their lives, the officials, together with the engineer and Doctor Farnham, waited within their bomb-proof shelter several miles from the area of the Living Dead, for the last act in the stupendous drama. , Without a hitch the dam was blown up, and the vast torrent of water rushed in a mighty cataract through the crater wall and into the depths of the voleano. Even from where they watched, the of- ficials could see the far-flung white cloud of steam that instantly arose from the towering mountain top. One minute passed, two, three,—With a roar that seemed to split heaven and earth, with a shock that threw every man to the ground, the en- tire side of the mountain seemed to rise in air. A blinding glare that dulled the midday sun clove the sky; a pillar of smoke that shot upward to the zenith blotted sun and sky from sight, and for miles around, the earth was split, rent and riven. Streams overflowed their banks; landslides came crashing down mountain sides; forest trees were splintered into matchwood. Birds were killed in midair by the concussion, and for days after- wards, dead fish floated by thousands upon the sur- face of the sea. To those in the bombproof shelter, it seemed as if the explosion would never end, as if the mightiest of the volcano’s forces had been conjured from the bowels of the earth and might never cease to erupt. And for what seemed hours, no debris, no stones or pulverized earth and rocks came tumbling back to earth. But at last,— in reality but a few moments after the explosion,— thousands of tons of broken rock, of splintered trees, of ash and mud, of impalpable dust came (Continued on page 98) —- Pe. Fan. eck . ‘ (€(0) al E | L | Vm ; . 7