Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

THE PLANET'S AIR MASTER 181 second, He was forced to close them again because of the strong light that met his gaze. “How are you feeling, old timer?” A shiver of joy ran through him at the sound of the voice. It was Riel! Turning over on his side towards the familiar voice, he opened his eyes again. He was on a bed in a small room and Riel was sitting on the bedside. He raised himself up a bit. “What hit me?” he asked. “Fragment of -a shell,” Riel replied. “I was quite worried about you, as-we dropped the bombs. But we had to do it. We dared not land, knowing the power and cleverness of the man we were dealing with. We had to-take the chance and wreck him before he could turn some other infernal invention against us,” “Well Pm out of it, so that’s that,” was the smiling reply. Then Wallace added_more seriously, “But he got away in the submarine?” “Yes, One of the planes spotted him as he dived, but before we could get him, he had dropped so deep that we were unable to trace him. However, the planes are watching for him and we've a chance to get him t,” “But tell me Riel, how did you buck that damned tay?” “Well,” replied the detective, “I had an idea when I first met you in New York that a ray was being used and I found proof. enough during our trip to London. On reaching England I commenced to-put into effect a plan that I had been working on, prior to my meeting you. This was a plan to make a person proof against the ray. The idea was to use a metal cap constructed of soft iron which I was sure would absorb the mag- netic waves of the beam, and carry them around the head, and in that way prevent them from passing through and affecting the brain. To make a test of this cap, I ordered that special. You thought there were only two of you on the liner, but there were three for I was on board.” “You were?” “Yes, I had my assistant prepare a corner of the baggage room for me and place a large cylinder of cast iron in the corner during the night. Whileyou were asleep, I went out and hada metak cap made to fit my requirements, and stole on board the liner and crawled: inside the large cylinder that was placed on_its end. When the vision ray was put on the ship the next day, only the control room received any attention from the wizard, and I was not seen, The metal cylinder absorbed the ray as I expected. Of course, if he had used a greater pressure on the vision ray, he could have penetrated through-the cylinder. But as it was, he didn’t, for he paid little attention to any part of the liner outside of the control room. When the telepathy ray was put on, you two were effected, but my brain remained clear, which was proof.that the cap was able to deflect it, Being free of the ray and having! the spy under lock, I went ahead with my plans and preparations with little trouble after return- ing to London. I equipped a number of our police with such hats skillfully covered to resemble the standard police helmet, and had the Central Office in- form the United States Secret Service Bureau of our plans with a suggestion to co-operate, and a request to equip twenty planes and crew to our specifications. “The United States readily took part in our plans, and under my directions, equipped a fleet of planes. They also offered use of the light naval cruiser “Lib- erty,” which is the world’s swiftest boat of that class, = on which you are riding: now on your way back to New York. We then had ‘both governments draw all air and sea craft from the zone where we had an idea the criminal’s base was. We were about ready to send the box of plans which contained a radio set that gave out the signals, when the air tragedy took place, which one of our planes witnessed. That incident caused us to equip a much larger force with protective hats, the extra force to scout the sky. and prevent any ship, caught by the ray, from doing any ‘harm. Then men in our police ships, with clear heads, would: be at an advantage over any plane under the power of the ray, and would be able to use paralyzer.gas bombs on them, putting them out of commission long enough to allow us to finish the raid. “The box we. sent on the liner contained a radio device that was controlled by-a sort of altimeter, The tadio set contained a device with a set of codes on a cylinder which: was run by clock-work. Ten different messages on this cylinder were each thrown into circuit at a cettain reading of the altimeter, That is, when the radio box was on a plane at ten thousand feet, the meter reading at that point would cause the contactor to slide along the cylinder and send-out a certain line of code, At sea level, the meter would read zero, and the contactor would shift on the cylinder, giving out a signal that we knew indicated that the box was at sea level. From the moment we. placed the box of plans on the cruiser, our planes that were spread out all over the Atlantic between America and England, were listen- ing to it and checking it on their direction and location indicating instruments, A Matter of a Tin Hat 6¢ AS the box was carried out by the cruiser, and later taken from the plane and speeded away, I sent out the necessary directions to the different planes telling them what distance to keep from the signals. Gradually we closed in the circle. I was ahout to give the signal-to raid, when the sea level signal-announced that the plane had come down, but. I waited awhile and was surprised to notice it on the move again, and later the submerged signal told me that. they were carrying the box below sea level on a submarine. I waited: until the-submarine came up and T heard the surface signal, then I took a chance on the submarine being near the base and gave-the signal that they were all waiting for. In a few moments a semi- circle of planes were closing in on that signal box, with engines at full speed, each one anxious to get there first. The cruiser was only fifty miles from the spot when she got the signal and was there, almost as soon as the planes,” “But why didn’t you tell me that you knew of the “Tt was because I thought the ray would be used to read your mind on the trip back to New. York and if I had told you you would have had the thoughts in your mind all the way back, Again if I had told you of my plans to use the metal caps to outwit him with, you may have revealed our secret when he read your thoughts and he would have created a living hell on this earth before we would have had a chance to put our plans into effect. Then again if I had let you wear a metal hat, so that he could not read your thoughts, then he would have probably detected it before long.” “But how did you prevent him from using the ray to read your mind and learn of your plans. He must Ta COMME IOOXS3O} Tet Pe ee ee oh RNP ey