Air Wonder Stories, May 1930 — page 51: what you’re looking at

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

learned to know—and dread—roared its message. From out- side the building, and seemingly high in the air, it came, stern, commanding, not to be disobeyed. “Fools that you are, you've done tt; you'll have to bear the ‘penalty! Leave that room immediately, and come outside, every last one of youl” Vachell leaped to his feet and faced the gathering, imme- diately taking charge. “Well, gentlemen,” ‘he exclaimed grimly, “what shall we do? Shall we stay. in here, powerless, while Demetriovich does as he pleases with us, or shall we go outside as he has directed? T think the latter course would-be the most sensible to follow, inasmuch as we may be able to do something there. We're completely. in his power anyway, if seems.” It required but a moment for us to decide to leave the room; in a few seconds we stood outside. With one.accord we turned our eyes skyward—and saw the source of the voice! High above us, hovering motionless in mid-air, sunlight glinting from its smooth, unbroken sides, was a great, metal cone, Poised high above the centet of the Union Building, and consequently above the exact center of. the island, it pointed its-base directly toward. the earth. And from that base streamed a pulsing, flickering pillar of blue radiance! Upon this, the cone seemed to be resting, MOMENT after we had emerged from the building, the voice had spoken again, “I warned you that, if my commands went smheeded, youd regret it! You've deliberately ignored everything I’ve said, so yowll have to take the- consequences! I—° A shot rang out from one ofthe armed vessels, and the shell leaped toward its mark. And exploded about fifty feet from the cone! It seemed to have struck a wall ok some invisible force. At that. moment, two airplanes left the main. group of ships, and swooped down toward the cone in an evident attempt to wreck it, though they sacrified their lives in the attempt. Like the shell, they crashed into that invisible barrier, seemed: to rebound, and fell into the sea, twin masses of flame. The voice laughed sardonically. “So youd try to injure me with your feeble weapons! How droll!” The cone tiled at a sharp angle, and a beam of dazzling, white radiance replaced the pillar of-blue. It darted toward the ship from which the shot-had come, and bathed it in its brilliant” light, The vessel seemed to start under the impact; then, slowly, gradually, it grew transparent, wraithlike, and— vanished: “Perhaps you will realise now, how utterly helpless you are! But enough of this nonsense! You must sreh the reward of your folly!” The cone, again in an upright position, began whirling rapidly. A circular flood of white light, similar in appearance to that which had destroyed the ship, leaped from the base of the cone, and, like an inverted funnel, spread over the island, A pleasant tingling pervaded my being at my first contact with the rays. But vas those rays increased in intensity, the tingling lost its pleasantness, and became a nerve-racking, miuscle-twisting torture, Finally, when I thought T had reached the limit of human ‘endurance, there was a sudden—snap—as though my spirit-had broken the cords that had bound it to its earthly shell, the white ray vanished, and I was myself again. Demetriovich Again! GLANCED at Vachell. His face, turned toward the ocean, had an incredulous expression upon it. I followed his gaze— and gasped in amazement. The ships, yachts and seaplanes that had dotted the harbors were gone—vanished. Then too I noticed that the:airplanes that had been circling above us, had likewise disappeared. We were alone on-the open seat THE INVISIBLE 2 DESTROYER . rT A sharp exclamation from Vachell caused me to glance up- — ward. The cone was descending! It came to rest about five - feet above us, and a tittle to the left, still supported by that blue: pillar. Then a-section of the seemingly solid: wall of the cone slid aside, ‘and the figure of Demetriovith appeared at the opening. He stood there for a moment, looking down at us, then he stepped off into the air, Twin pillars of blue radiance “Streamed from the soles of his shoes, and he floated gently to the ground, As Demetriovich noted the expressions of amazement that must haye been on our faces, he chuckled: drily, “You've seen some things that are rather surprising, haven't your” he-asked. “Yet what you've seen is only a small fraction of what I am capable of doing.” He spoke in a casual, con- versational tone that was- decidedly annoying, : Up to this time we had been silent and motionless, But now Vachell stepped forward. “Well, Alex,” he said boldly, “you seem to have become something of: dictator recently, And your liking for the melodramatic has been developed toa surprising degree. These childish tricks you've been performing are unworthy of a scien- tist. Really, I’m surprised at you!” A wave of red passed over the Russian'’s face, and he at- ~temntad to speak; but Vachell gave him no opportunity. “All your sensationalism is of no avail; now. There’s noth- — ing to prevent our making. you a prisoner ;.and all your threats and promises will have been-in: vain. In fact—” “Nothing to prevent you from: capturing. me!” Demetriovich roared in anger, “Nothing—except this!” “He thrust his hand into a belt that encircled his waist, and drew therefrom, a small, metal, shining cone. He pointed the base at us, and pressed a button; and in a moment we were firmly rooted: to the ground. We were as helpless as we had been in the Capitol. at Wash- ington. “I think that’s enough to interfere with your capturing mel" the Russian exclaimed. And, so-faras my ‘childish tricks’ are concerned, I can soon convince you that what I’ve doneis quite a bit-more than that. There’s no reason why. I should tell you this, but at the same time, it can do no harm, for you're power- less to interfere with my plans, Besides,-it may serve to con- vince you that what I’m doing is for the benefit of mankind-and the world. ifs TBRATION is the secret of it all, You may_not-realize it, but vibration is everything. Life, matter, energy— all are the result of vibration. “Some of you have heard of the wave theory of matter, that theory. whicladvances the thought that—nothing acttally has tangible substance, that all matter is caused by wave impulses, and that the electrons: and protons that make wp everything, are merely electrical dis- charges, That theory is correct in some respects, but. it is inadequate, foo conservative. Vibration is the secret of the Universe, of life itself. “My presence in the meetings of the World Conference was simply the result of a new form of vibratory effect. The force that paralyzed you-in the second’ meeting, and that is gripping you now, is another. The protective field of force around my-cone is a third; the destruction of the ship was a fourth; and the apparent disappearance of all the ships and planes, a fifth, And-those are but a few of the many. “Tn all probability, you,. Vachell, and your fellow scientists are familiar with the known facts about the table of vibration; _ but since I’ve explored the tncharted portions of the vibratory scale, things have been changed considerably. “As you know, vibrations of the first octave, from 2 to 8 — per Second, make no imptession upon our senses, As for the rest, the qualities of the mown octaves are as follows. The fourth to the fifteenth octaye, 16 to 32,768 vibrations per sec- ond, give us sotind. From the twenty-fifth to the thirty-fifth, _ 33,554,432,| to 34,359,738,368 per second, we have electricity.