COSMIC TRAGEDY
By THOMAS S. GARDINER
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Comet March 41.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The big man with the iron grey hair stared morosely out the quartzwindow and across the roofs of Greater New York. Far down the canyonstreets a few motor cars still ran and over the swinging aerial bridgesscattered pedestrians carefully wended their way. Their grotesquefigures with the heavy metal helmets that reminded the watching manof the half-mythical sea monsters of the past or divers that used toexplore wrecks were far different from the jostling crowds that hadcrowded the ways only a few short days ago. But that was before theplague—the plague of the whispering death.
John Cortland, United Utilities Power magnate, sighed as he turnedfrom the quiet streets below. Somberly he regarded a tiny light beamthat came from the mirror of a galvanometer that trembled and dancedcontinually. He mused over the events of the past few days and wonderedat their meaning. Like a caged tiger he paced the metal lined roomwaiting for the word that would spell success or disaster. Five daysbefore it had first appeared. A whispering, a singing and vibrating hadmanifested itself. It was not local but appeared simultaneously allover the earth. This whispering, as of elfish voices, was not annoyingat first; but it changed and alternated from a shrill whine back to theeery murmuring that was first noticed. Young Cavendish at the BlackLaboratories had first tracked down the cause of the strange sounds—asto its ultimate origin, that was still veiled in mystery.
At the end of the first day people had become nervous, at the endof the second many were on the point of breaking, and then mankindbegan to go insane. It was too much for their nervous systems and thevibration seemed to affect the inner ear. Suddenly a well orderedplanet became a center of bedlam and chaos. Order could not be restoredbecause there was no one to handle affairs. If Dr. Hankins had notdiscovered that iron would shield a wearer from the vibrations, mankindwould have been doomed. As it was only a few of the earth's heavypopulation had been able to get the protecting helmets, and some hadlived in metal lined rooms. This discovery of the shielding effect ofiron led to the discovery that an electro-magnetic radiation betweeninfra-red and the short radio waves was acting on the ozone moleculesto set them into vibration. To cap it all the ionized Heavyside Layerthat protected the earth from the ultra-violet rays from the sunwas decomposing also. Thus to the plague of the Whispering Death wasadded the threat of sun burn—a horrible burn that killed the skin andultimately the patient.
Savagely John Cortland kicked at his chair as he paced across theroom. There was one slender hope, a tiny thread that might save themat last. Europe was prostrated, Asia in turmoil, and America in chaos.All depended on the theory that the origin of the destructive vibrationthat had set their ozone molecules into their dance of death hadintelligence back of it. The source of the radiation could not be foundat this time, but that was not needed. If they could use the incomingradiation field as a carrier and heterodyne on it a super-imposedvibration perhaps the source could be destroyed. Japan had furnishedthe formula for the opposing field, and United Utilities Power theenergy. All the great power stations on the planet had been connectedup into a unit, all the tremendous kilowat