The Argosy, April 1916 — page 195: what you’re looking at

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

WHO IS CHARLES AVISON? “ But why—” : “Oh, I will tell you everything—soon. ‘But first tell me this: Along the twentieth of May was there a kind of meteoric dis- turbance—a comet?” ‘How came you not to notice that? A meteor swept very near the earth. But tell me—”’ : : “No. Let me go. I won’t explain now —I can’t! But I will write to you in a day or so.” Then as he hurried out: | “To think that I should find out the truth at last!” : IV. It was only a day or so later that Vunden disappeared as if from the face of the earth. But a mimeograph copy of a strange letter came to every great scientist in the nation. And one letter—the original—came to one recipient who was not a scientist at all— Agnes Cole. It made many a gray-haired astron- omer shake his head unbelievingly. But Agnes understood. The communication read: To AGNES, AND TO THE SCIENTIFIC MEN OF THE WORLD: I do not expect you to believe what I have written here, but I only ask that you investi- gate and you will then learn that what I say is true. And I, Charles David Avison, of There, not of Here—but an equal in mind, ability, and genius of the Charles David Avi- son who died for science, Here, of whom you already know—I swear to you that it is the truth. 3 If you do not believe, it is no matter. For even now I feel that perhaps I am doing wrong to add to the knowledge of the world wherein I do not belong. Understand first that there are two earth worlds. In order that you may not confuse them, I will call the one in which I now am Here. The other is There. Both were thrown off from the sun as spiral nebula at the same instant. Here went one direction, and There the other. Both being of the same size, gravity overcame the centrifugal force at exactly the same distance © in space from the sun. The two cooled the same time, of course, their oceans formed coincidentally, and the first germs of life appeared upon There at the identical instant as that when they ap- peared Here. I have already told you enough to enable you to understand what occurred. There is no fate or chance in life—everything is cause and effect, cause and effect. So as life developed There, its exact counterpart developed Here. [ r every cave- man there, one was Here—his exact counter- part in appearance. Everything that he did or thought or felt, the caveman Here did or thought or felt at the same time. And so it was through the ages. When I, Charles David Avison, was born There, Charles David Avison was born Here. When he began to love, I began to love. When he made that greatest discovery of all ages—the S waves which, conducted through a certain substance, will render it immune to the attraction of gravity, I made it There. Together we built spherical machines, and at the same second christened them the Vulcan. I will not tell here of my discovery, but ’ will leave it for some one else to make—one who belongs on this Here of yours. Your world has had its Avison; my world still awaits the benefits accruing from the discov- eries of its own Avison. On the same day we each made trial flights, I There on that far-away counterpart world, and he Here. A few months later, on -the sixteenth of May, we left our worlds. He left Here and I left There, and each of us floated away toward the stars. Each of us had air for many days and food enough. But then for the first time some- thing happened There that did not happen Here. For the first time the dualism was broken. A meteor came near There when one did not come Here. My Vulcan was attracted to it by gravity, and before I could throw the S waves into the metal covering to render us immune, I was sweeping after it at a terrific pace—faster than our finite minds can con- ceive. I became unconscious then—why, I do not know. But I see now what happened. The meteor carried me across that infinite expanse to a point where the gravity of this world began to grip me. I began to fall. I remember now that when I wakened the sea was below me. I remember that I threw on the S waves just in time, and floated down to safety. I do not how the other Charles Avison of Here fell to his death. I know that his machine was as good as mine, for the laws of cause and effect ordered it so. I can only attribute his fall to some influence of this meteor—this monstrous disturber out of space. The meteor probably never struck the earth; it might now be buried deep in the cold surface of the moon. I have no place in this world of yours; I am a Stranger here. In fact, I have no place anywhere now, for my counterpart is dead. If I stay here the old dualism will be broken still more, and our two worlds would soon become most different places. anyway, now, for there is a man’s body be- neath the grass of Here, that is not There. When you get this I will have boarded my Vulcan and will have started out into that strange, wonderful maze of worlds. Perhaps I will go home—or perhaps to a new world. Perhaps I will not get anywhere. But I do not care. I would die out there among the stars, or perhaps on their un- known surfaces, the greatest voyager that the worlds have ever known. cComicoooks 185 It is broken,— C@