The Green Forest tribune., 1910-05-20


 men who had read these things from the throb- ping tape stood in yellow-lit doorways shout ing the news to the passersby. Tt is nearer" Pretty women, flushed and gittering, heard the news told jestingly between the dances and feigned an intelligent interest they did not feel. "Nearer! Indeed. How curious! How clever people must be to find out things like that"
 Lonely tramps faring through the wintry selves-looking skyward. Tt has need to be nearer for the nights as cold charity. Don't seem much warmth from it if it is nearer all the same"
 What is a new star to me?" cried the weeping woman kneeling beside her dead.
 The schoolboy, rising early for his examl nation work, puzzled it out for himself-with the great white star shining broad and bright through the frost-fowers of his window. Cen trifugal, centripetal," he said, with his chin on his fist "Stop planet in it's flight, rob it of it's centrifugal force what then? Centripeta has it. and down it falls into the sun! And this-i"
 Do we come in the way. I wonder"
 The light of that day went the way of its brethren and with the later watches of the frosty darkness rose the strange star again And it was now so bright that the waxing moon seemed but pale yellow ghost of itself hanging huge in the sunset In a South Afri can city a great man had married and the streets were alght to welcome his return with his bride. Even the skies have illuminated" said the fatterer Under Capricorn, two negro lovers, daring the wild beasts and evil spirits for love of one another crouched together in a cane brake where the frefies lowered. That is our star they whispered, and felt strangely comforted by the sweet brillancy of it's light
 The master mathematician sat in his pr yate room and mashed thP DaDerS from him. His calculations were already finished In small white phial there still remained little of the drug that had kept him awake and active for four long nights Each day, serene, explicit and patient as ever, he had given his lecture to his students and then had come back at once to his momentous calculation His face was grave, a little drawn. and hectic from his drugged activity For some time he seemed lost in thought. Then he went to the window and the blind went up with a click Half way up the sky, over the clustering roofs chimneys and steeples of the city, hung the star
 He looked at it as one might look into the eye of brave enemy You may kill me-" he said after silence; but I can hold you-and all the universe for that matter-in the grip of this little brain. would not change. Even new"
 He looked at the little phial. There will be no need of sleep again." he said. The next day at noon, punctual to the minute, he en- tered his lecture theater put his hat on the end of the table as his habit was, and carefully selected large piece of chalk. It was joke among his students that he could not lecture without that piece of chalk to tumble in his fingers, and once he had been stricken to i'm potence by their hiding his supply He came and looked under his gray eyebrows at the rising tiers of young, fresh faces, and spoke with his accustomed studied commences of phrasing Circumstances have arisen-cir- cumstances beyond my control" he said, and paused, which will debar me from completing the course I had designed. It would seem, gentlemen if 1 may put the thing clearly and briefly, that-man has lived in vain."
 The students glanced at one another Had they heard aright? Mad? Raised eyebrows and grinning lips there were, but one or two faces remained intent upon his calm, gray fringed face Tt will be interesting" he saying, Ito devote this morning to an exposi- ton, so far I can make it clear to you, of the calculations that have led me to this con- clusicn. Let us assume"
 He turned toward the blackboard medita- ting diagram in the way that usual to him. What was that about lived in vain'?" whispered one student to another "Listen" said the other, noddng toward the lecturer.
 And presently they began to understand.
 That night the star rose later, for it's proper eastward motion had carried it some way across Leo toward Virgo and it's brightness was great that the sky became a luminous blue as it rose and every star hidden in it's turn, save only Jupiter near the zenith. Capella, Aldebaran, Sirius and the pointers of the Bear. It was white and beautiful. In many parts of the world that night pallid halo encrcled it about It perceptibly larger; in the clear refractive sky of the trop- ics it seemed if it were nearly quarter the size of the moon. The frost was still on the ground in England but the world was as brightly lit as if it were midsummer moonlight. One could see to read quite ordinary print by that cold, clear light, and in the cities the lamps burnt yellow and wan,
 And everywhere the world was awake that night, and throughout Christendom a somber murmur hung in the keen air over the country side like the belling of bees in the heather, and this murmurous tumult grew to a clangor in the cities. It was the toling of the bells in a million belfry towers and steeples, moning the people to sleep no more, to sin no And overhead, growing larger and brighter, the earth rolled it's way and the night passed rose the dazzling star.
 And the streets and houses alight in all the cities, the shipyards glared, and what ever roads led to high country were lit and crowded all night long. And in all the seas about the civilized lands ships with throbbing engines and ships with beyng sails, crowded with men and living creatures, standing out to ocean and the north. For already the warning of the master mathematician had been telegraphed all the world and translated into hundred tongues.
 The new planet and Neptune locked in a fiery embrace were whirling headlong ever