Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-02
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Excited crowds were surging round the bulle-
tins. II was useless and dangerous to do more
than hover on the outskirts, and confused and
broken as were the reports passed back to us,
we did not know what reliance to place on
them. General darkness over the whole of the
kingdom" paris reports daylight prolonged
four hours and ten minutes"
A sudden glimmering of the horrible truth
flashed upon me.
"Alice, come homel want to see Uncle Lev.
ertonl"
Ny wife refused to allow me out Of her sight.
] ordered the horses TO be harnessed, and we
started for my uncle's. just as we left town a
faint grey lightened the east and as we drove
we watched the progress Of that unprecedented
sunrise. II was entirely ordinary except for the
fact that il occurred at three minutes before 10
o'clock.
Uncle Leverton was not at home. His house
keeper told us that he had left on sudden busi-
ness the night before. She did not know where
he had gone.
The day dragged by The sun was five hours
behind time in setting The stupendous truth
staring men in the face that the e.rth s
daily rotary motion was steadily growing slow
| erl
But greater surprises awaited earth's denizens
upon another dawn. Not only was the time lost
the previous day made up; the proper time or
| daybreak anticipated by exactly forty-fvo
minutes The populace panic-stricken. Re
ligious reformers frothed Scientists were
aghast. Everybody counted watch-ticks until
the next day, and sigh of relief was breathed
around the world when the sun came up at the
proper time.
/ waited until the afternoon OF that day, then
called to pay my respects to my uncle. The
housekeeper said that he had returned in the
forenoon, and gone to bed with strict orders not
| to disturb him. | made another attempt in the
| m Ha pd nd "a
tigued; but his eyes alight with fire I
believed could we'll comprehend,
"Well, uncle" l said, as quietly l could,
| "you and Golgotz nave set the world by the
ears"
what do you mean?" he exclaimed, sharply.
He eyed me till felt uncomfortable. l think,
Edward" he added after a pause, and with
peculiarly incisive utterance, ''you had better
take the hint that Golgotz and l are to be left
alone, and that I don't care to discuss the sub
ject with you anyone else"
I bowed.
"I beg your pardon, uncle. You must be aware
that, knowing what 1 do, l could scarcely fail to
connect the recent strange occurrences in nature
with what / saw take place in your study. What
is more what has since happened is of vital in
terest to everyone in the world l think that |
am entitled to considerate treatment from you,
and deserve your confidence"
"You entitled to nothing, SIR rejoined
take place in my study You will be pleased to
excuse me, Edward. Good night!
He went out of the room, leaving me standing
in grief and amaBement at the first msunder
standing that had ever occurred between U.S.
There was no further irregularity in the
earth's movements for number of days Then
came a: recurrence with alarming augmentation
of periods Sometimes the number of hours in
ed ay multiplied three-fold. There~were at
mospherc disturbances. Vegetation began to suf-
fer, scorched by the three days sun or blghted
by the cold of an enduring night. Trans-oceanic
travel and transportation almost ceased. Busi-
ness everywhere was demoralized.
| I began to debate with myself whether it was
not my duty to communicate what ] knew to
| the government ] hesitated to do So my affec-
| ton for my benefactor making me unwilling to
thwart his plans, and my faith in his integrity
and judgment rendering me confident that he
would do nothing permanently detrimental to
the interest of mankind l resolved at least to
wait for a while.
Late one evening / sat in my Office, drowsily
trying to finish an article had been reading,
when ring at the door-bel aroused me. A
second later l sprang to my feet wide awake.
jenkins had ushered n--Gogotz.
I had not seen the man since that day in nv
uncle's study. He was now dressed as a gentle
man, his hair and beard trimmed, and his very
eyebrows tanned What struck me at once was
an expression of nervous apprehension and ap-
peal in his eyes.
CDR Henderson," he said II am about to ask
you to do very strange and dangerous thing
| / want you to arrest and secure your uncle He
is insane"
'What deviltry have you been up to-you
| two?" broke out.
"You have probably already guessed We
have been experimenting with the force of grav-
ity as it concerns the rotation of the earth
We have machinery constructed underground
some distance from here. He is at work now
and he is bent upon reversing the earths mo-
! ton.
"'Well," l exclaimed, harshly, "is that any
worse than what you have done?"
"The consequence would be the destruction