Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1913-10-09
cHAPTER III.-contlnued.

CHAPTER III.-contlnued.
Selection was made and the sever
chosen ones departed in several differ
ent directions with assurances tina
they would hasten back as soon al
they had observed conditions abroad
in the respective portions of the towr
to which they had assigned them
selves. Blind chance decreed thai
Alan, Clay and Professor Desmond
should remain. Judge Fulton as mas
ter of the house remained with them
They gathered themselves into 6
close group Your theory now, pro
fessor?" they asked as their fellows
disappeared. Desmond, tall and gaunt
rugged without uncouthness, passed
his hand slowly over a forehead lined
by long years Of study and thought
"My friends" he began hesitatingly
1--WE have not only witnessed but are
living to tell Of a miracle so astonish
ing that human history contains moth
ing which even approaches it. You
will understand perfectly that any at
tempted explanation upon my part will
be but my individual theory, and that
1t may be entirely disproved in the
light of subsequent developments
That being borne in mind, think up
on your part you will readily concede
that while my prophecy as to our de-
struction went astray, yet our escape
was by hairs breadth of few score
miles. And while | did not calculate
with entire accuracy, l did calculate
even closer than you could have
wished"
"And our being missed-how can
that be accounted for If the earth was
the object of attack? How can the at
tracted object miss the magnet and
pass on as this body seems to have
done?"
ut cannot. And that is the very
thing that proves to us that the earth
was not the magnet In this case, and
1t was the error on my part which
tends to explain the miss. The body
which passed us was and undoubtedly
at this moment is bound for some 9TH
er point In space many million miles
beyond us, perhaps for some vast
body or group of bodies of which we
have no knowledge, perhaps for one of
the huge suns we can see. Or, again,
possibly like some of the comets it
has an orbit of well nigh incalcul-
able extent, and like comet passes
certain point every so many years. In
any event it took small notice of US
no more in fact than had we been a
soap bubble. We merely happened to
be in Its path"
But why did not the earth divert
this much smaller body to itself when
they were in such close contact"
"That may be accounted for by as
Stunning that because of the entirely
different natures of their compositions
they did not happen to attract each
other, as for example glass ignores the
lodestone while iron does not. And
because of the terrific speed of the
traveller 1t shot through our sphere OF
influence by sheer momentum, as an
iron ball may be thrown or shot past
magnet which would divert and re-
tain 1t had not it's momentum carried
It by. Some comets which pass very
close In their circuit around the sun
are only kept from falling into 1t by
their awful momentum, the speed OF
some of them at that period of their
flight being over a million miles an
hour. These are the possible solutions
which occur to me at this time. How
ever, 1 am free to admit that my rea-
soning faculties have been consider
ably disturbed, and tomorrow l may
entirely reverse my opinion of to-
night"
did it touch us at all?"
Il think not-except atmospherical-
ly."
'Why the vibrations, the winds, the
terrible air pressure and the vacuum
in which we all SO nearly persisted"
More speculation. The earth I'M
doubtedly sensed the approach of the
mysterious stranger and evidenced it
to the extent of quivers of apprehen-
sion. The other physical manifesto
lions were probably electrical, mag
netic and ethereal, while the pressure
and vacuum were caused by actual
physical contact"
But did you not say there was no
physical contact?
except the physical contact Of
xheir buffeting atmospheres, supposing
that the visitor carried it's own atmos-
phere along with 1t, or the contact OF
it's solid body itself with our atmos-
phere in case 1t had none of its own.
The result would have been practical
Nv the same in either case. Now for
the sake of the argument let US as
sumo the earth to be ball as large
as an apple, and our friend of few
moments ago to be much smaller
ball-say the size Of pea, For the
purpose of the illustration we will also
suppose the larger ball which repre-
SCENTS the earth to be moving but
slowly. Now you throw the smaller
hall mast the larger one SO closely that