Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 80: what you’re looking at

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

174 AIR WONDER STORIES full horror of it came-to him, To think that man-was no longer master of his own brain, no longer able to say what he wanted, or remain: quiet when he wanted to. He realized the havoc and madness the telepathy could create in the world. People were no longer free to think without this man knowing all about it. Hu- man beings would live in a nightmare afraid to think for fear of others hearing them. Even in the secrecy of their own homes the world would know every thought flashed through their minds. He remembered” how he-had imagined the panic that the wizard’s vision tay would cause if the public ever knew of its existence and use. But there was a protection against the vision tay, as Riel had proved. A person had merely to pro- duce a magnetic field of sufficient strength to ward it off; One’s home could then be screened off from it and one’s secrets guarded, Wallace closed his eyes and then more clearly realized the: devilish effects of this thing. The vision tay would at least allow you to think in secret; But now even when one was thinking how was one to know whether the thoughts were one’s own or those of some one else. How could one tell, when he talked, whether he was speaking thoughts of his own or those of some other person, It was madness. It was hellish, A person was far better off dead. What the Wizard Revealed AS these thoughts ran madly through Frank’s brain, he had forgotten about the scientist who was stand- ing near him with an amused smile on his face. “And you intend to use these devilish instruments against mankind to satisfy your greed for power?” Wallace demanded finally, “T will use it against any one who. stands between me.and my goal,” was the cool reply. “I will,.if neces- sary, turn one-half of the world against the other half in a war that will completely wreck your civilization.” “You can accomplish nothing by that, for your own existence is dependent upon civilization.” The scientist shook his head. ‘During the: excitement of war, it will be easy for me to obfain certain papers that your friend Riel has in his possession. In fact, when the world powers see that I am able to fulfill my threats, there will be no delay in getting the papers for me. I was about to send word to your detective friend telling him when to send me the drawings, when you entered. Now, if you will excuse me, I will carry out my task and, inas- much as Riel uses a triple-circuit wireless in his office, we will send him a message through it. I built a duplicate of his set’ for this reason. I had little diffi- culty getting the plans from Dr. Forest who invented the system. First, we will put the vision ray on his office and see if anyone is there. We must read the dial setting of his instruments. Now if you will take a seat here at the table I will show you the power that T have in the vision ray alone,” Going over. to the experimental-work bench, he re- turned: with two head-riggings and handed: one-to Wal- lace, showing him how to adjust it onto his head and plug the projecting cord into the table. The head gear consisted of a leather cap that fitted closely over the head and containing a sort of felt lining. A strap ran down each side of the face from this cap and fastened below the chin; ear units, covering the ears, were attached to the strap also. A close-fitting mouth unit and a black mask stretched-across the eyes, having two pale blue, convex glasses to see through, were also attached to the side straps of the head gearing. Wallace adjusted his mask and. adjusted, the square of glass on the table until he could see it best, though at best he could see little through the blue glasses. “When yot-want to talk,” the scientist’s voice sounded in his ear units, “use your mouth attachment, and turn dial four in front of you. This gives me the signal and I can connect my head set with yours. For when ‘we ate not talking we must keep our ear units con- nected: onto the voice wave amplifier to hear the sounds that our ray teceives.” Wallace was mystified at the pleasant mood of his captor, but decided to accept the hospitality and learn all-he could. Then, perhaps, a chance would come in which he could assist his friends on the outside to overpower the master criminal. “This small wheel here,” continued the wizard, through the phone circuits, and pointing to a control in front of him, “controls the ray pointer which is located on the roof. This meter, between our chairs, is_divisioned off and marked similar to a compass. The thin black pointer which is pointing N.N.E. indi- cates the direction that the ray pointer is turned to. Tt is now pointing north by northeast which will pass the ray through London. Now watch your reflector plate and I will turn on the ray.” The scientist turned, twisted and turned a number of table controls and presently there was a scraping sound in the phones, the glass plate lit up in a momen- tary flash-and was dark again. Then, again, it fluttered and this time remained dimly illuminated. The upper part of the glass. seemed to reflect the light a little brighter than the lower half. But, again, the light shifted and the blur began to fade, while the sound of rushing wind could be heard in the ear units. Gradu- ally the scene cleared and the upper or brighter half could be recognized as the sky and the lower part as water. With the clearing of the scene, the hearing device cleared up too, and the sound of the. wind and the occasional breaking of a wave could be heard plainly.. Under the guidance of the master’s fingers, the scene swept past the little reflector plate at a fast rate, until the outlineof the British coast could be seen followed quickly -by the waterfront of.London. Soon, towering buildings of the city were filling the scene, A moment later-a single building had been: singled out by the nimble fingers of the wizard and was quickl brought to a close-up. Z A Test of Power Co and. closer. the building approached, and the noises of the city increased steadily. Now the scene had. focussed on the building itself until only one small section of the wall was filling the scene. It was so close that the bricks could be counted. with little. dif- ficulty, Another change began to takeplace and the bricks of the wall gradually faded as another scene took its place. As it cleared, Wallace gave a start; it ae ite office-of Graham, the London manager of the Graham was talking to a man that Wallace had not seen before. “But if Riel was the only one that went on the liner, then where is Mr. Wallace,” Graham’s voice sounded in their ear units. “He was last seen in company with the detective.” “There is no need to worry about Mr. Wallace,” assured the stranger. “He is undoubtedly safe, but ee aoe sv 0 Meek eed &