Lords of the Stratosphere Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  _Frantic Scheming_

  There was no mistaking the meaning of that whistling shriek. Whateveragency had held the Vandercook building aloft had now released itsuncanny grip on the building, and thousands of tons of brick and mortar,of stone and steel, were plunging down in a mass from five thousand feetabove the Hudson. The same force had also released the ill-fated men andwomen who had been carried aloft with the building. And there must havebeen hundreds of people inside side the building.

  It fell as one piece, that great building. It didn't topple until it hadalmost reached the river and its shrieking plunge became meteor-like,the sound of its fall monstrous beyond imagining. The conference abovethe Hadley building fancied they could feel the outward rush of airdisplaced by the falling monster--and drew back in fear from the edge ofthe roof.

  The Vandercook struck the surface of the Hudson and an uprush ofgeysering water for a few seconds blotted the great building from view.Then all Manhattan seemed to shudder. Most of it was perhaps fancy, butthousands of frightened Manhattanites saw that fall, heard thewhistling, and felt the trembling of immovable Manhattan.

  The great columns of water fell back into the turbulent Hudson which hadreceived the plunging building. Not so much as a wooden desk showedabove the surface as far as any one could see from shore. Not a soul hadbeen saved. Shrieks of the doomed had never stopped from the moment theVandercook building had started its mad journey aloft.

  Jeter whirled on Hadley.

  "Will you see that all my suggestions are carried out, Hadley?" hedemanded.

  Hadley, face gray as ashes, nodded.

  From Manhattan rose the long abysmal wailing of a populace just findingits voice of fear after a stunning, numbing catastrophe.

  "I'll do whatever you say, Jeter," said Hadley. "We all agreed beforethe arrival of Eyer and yourself that your advice would be followed ifyou chose to give any."

  "Then listen," said Jeter, while Eyer stood quietly at his elbow,missing nothing. "Advise the people of New York to quit the city asquietly and in as orderly a manner as possible. Let the policecommissioner look after that. Then get word to the leading aviationauthorities, promoters, and fliers and have them get to our Mineolalaboratory as fast as possible. We've kept much of the detail ofconstruction of our space-ship secret, for obvious reasons. But the timehas come to forget personal aggrandizement and the world must know allwe have learned by our labor and research. Then see that everymanufacturing agency, capable of even a little of what it will take forthe program, is drafted to the work--by Federal statute ifnecessary--and turn out copies of our plane as quickly as God will letyou."

  * * * * *

  Hadley's eyes were bulging. So were those of the others who had crowdedclose to listen. They seemed to think Jeter had taken leave of hissenses, and yet--all had seen the Vandercook building perform theutterly impossible.

  Hadley nodded.

  "What do you want with the filers and others at your laboratory?"

  "To listen to the details of construction of our space ship. Eyer willhold a couple of classes to explain everything. Then, when we've madethings as clear as possible, Eyer and I will take off and get up to doour best to counteract the--whatever it is--that seems to be ruling thestratosphere. We'll do everything possible to hold the influences incheck until you can send up other space ships to our assistance."

  Hadley stared.

  "You speak as though you expected to be up for a long time. Planes likeyours aren't made overnight."

  "Planes like ours must be made almost overnight--and have you forgottenthat Kress was gone for three weeks, and yet had been dead butseventy-two hours when he landed on our roof? Incidentally, Hadley, thatfall of his was guided by something or someone. He didn't fall on ourroof by chance. He was dropped there, as a challenge to us!"

  "That means?" said Hadley hoarsely.

  "That everything we do is known to the intelligence of the stratosphere!That every move we make is watched!"

  "God!" said Hadley.

  Then Hadley straightened. His jaws became firm, his eyes lost theirfear. He was like a good soldier receiving orders.

  "All the power of the press will be massed to get the country to backyour suggestions, Jeter. They seem good to me. Now get back to your shipand leave everything to me. Suppose you do encounter some intelligencein the stratosphere? How will you combat it, especially if it provesinimical--which to-night's horror would seem to prove?"

  Jeter shrugged.

  "We'll take such armament as we have. We have several drums of a deadlyvolatile gas. We have guns of great power, hurling projectiles of greatvelocity; but I feel all of that will be more or less useless. Theintelligence up there--well, it knows everything we know and far morebesides, for do any of us know how to strike at the earth from thestratosphere? Therefore our only weapons must be our ownintelligence--at least that will be the program for Eyer and me. Later,when your planes which are yet to be built follow us up the sky, perhapsthey will be better armed. I hope to be able to communicate informationsomehow, relative to whatever we find."

  Hadley thrust out his hand.

  "Good luck," he said simply.

  * * * * *

  Then he was gone and Jeter and Eyer were dropping swiftly down in theelevator to the street--to find that the streets of Manhattan had gonemad. The ban on electric lights had been lifted, and the faces offear-ridden men and women were ghastly in the brilliance of thousands oflights. Traffic accidents were happening on every corner, at everyintersection, and there were all too few police to manage traffic.

  However, a motorcycle squad was ready to lead the way through the pressfor Eyer and Jeter--two grim-faced men now, who dared not look at eachother, because each feared to show his abysmal fear to the other.

  Automobiles raced past on either side of them driven by crazy men andhysterical women.

  "Queensboro Bridge will be packed tight as a drum," said Eyer quietly.

  Jeter didn't seem to hear. Eyer talked on softly, unbothered by Jeter'ssilence, knowing that Jeter wouldn't hear a word, that his partner haddrawn into himself and was even now, perhaps, visualizing what theymight encounter in the stratosphere. Eyer talked to give shape to hisown thoughts.

  A world gone mad, a world that fled from the menace which hung overManhattan.... Jeter hoped that the calm brains of men like Hadley wouldat least be able to quiet the populace somewhat, else many of them wouldbe self-destroyed, as men and women destroy one another in rushes forthe exits during great theater fire alarms.

  Fast as they traveled, some of the foremost airmen of the adjoiningcountry had reached Mineola ahead of them. They understood that many ofthem had arrived by plane in obedience to word broadcast by Hadley.Hadley was doing his bit with a vengeance.

  The partners reached their laboratory.

  Their head servant met them at the door.

  "A Mr. Hadley frantically telephoning, sir," he said to Jeter.

  Jeter listened to Hadley's words--which were not so frantic now, asthough Hadley had been numbed by the awful happenings.

  "The new bridge between Manhattan and Jersey," said Hadley, "has justbeen lifted by whatever the unearthly force is. It was pulled up fromits very foundations. It was crowded with cars as people fled from NewYork--and cars and people were lifted with the bridge. Awful irony wasin the rest of the event. The great bridge was simply turned, along itsentire length--which remained intact during the miracle--until it wasparallel with the river and directly above midstream. Then it wasdropped into the water."

  "No telling how many lives were lost?" asked Jeter.

  "No, and hundreds and thousands of lives are being lost every momentnow. Frantic thousands are swamping boats of all sizes in their craze toget away. Dozens of overloaded vessels have capsized and the surface ofthe river is alive with doomed people, fighting the water and oneanother...."

  * * * * *


  Jeter clicked up the receiver on the horror, knowing there was nothinghe could do. There would be no end to the loss of life until somemeasure of sanity had been argued into crazed humanity.

  All the time he kept wondering.

  What was doing all this awful business? He surmised that someanti-gravitational agency was responsible for the levitation of theVandercook building, but what sort of intelligence was directing it? Wasthe intelligence human? Bestial? Maniacal? Or was it something fromOutside? Jeter did not think the latter could be considered. He didn'tbelieve that any planet, possibly inhabited, was close enough to make avisit possible. At any rate, he felt that there should be some sort ofwarning. He held to the belief that the whole thing was caused by human,and earthly, intelligence.

  But why? The world was at peace. And yet....

  Thousands of lives had been snuffed out, a twelve-story building hadleaped five thousand feet into the air, and the world's biggest bridgehad turned upstream as though turning its back against the mad trafficit had at last been called upon to bear.

  Eyer was going over their plane with the visitors, men of intellect whowere taking notes at top speed, men who knew planes and were quick tograsp new appliances.

  "Have any of you got the whole story now?" Eyer asked.

  A half dozen men nodded.

  "Then pass your knowledge on to the others. Jeter and I must get readyto be off. Every minute we delay costs untold numbers of lives."

  Willing hands rolled their ship out to their own private runway, whileJeter and Eyer made last minute preparations. There was the matter offood, of oxygen necessary so far above the Earth, of clothing. All hadbeen provided for and their last duties were largely those of checkingand rechecking, to make sure no fatal errors in judgment had been made.

  Eyer was to fly the ship in the beginning.

  A small crowd watched as the partners, white of face now in the lastminutes of their stay on Earth--which they might never touch again inlife--climbed into their cabin, which was capable of being sealedagainst the cold of the heights and the lack of breathable oxygen.

  Nobody smiled at them, for the world had stopped smiling.

  Nobody waved at them, for a wave would have been frivolous.

  Nobody cheered or even shouted--but the two knew that the best wishes,the very hopes for life, of all the land, went with them into theghastly unknown.