Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1913-10-01
cHAPTER i,IIl.-contInIuued. .

. J.
CHAPTER ilIt-contlnued-
Selection was made and the seven
chosen ones departed in several differ
& nt directions with assurances that
they would hasten back as soon as
they had observed conditions abroad
in the respective portions Of the town
to which they had assigned them
selves. Blind change decreed that
Alan, Clay and Professor Desmond
should remain. Judge Fulton as mas.
ter OF the house remained with them.
They gathered themselves into q
close group. your theory now, pro,
1fessor?'' they asked a. their fellows
disappeared. Desmond, tall and gaunt,
rugged without uncouthness, passed
hiss hand slowly over q forehead lined
by long years Of study and thought.
'"'My friends" !" he began hePitatingly.
I'VE have not only witnessed but are
living to tell OF a miracle 80 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
I be but my individual theory, and that
It 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 a hairs breadth OF few score
miles. And while did not calculate
with entire accuracy. / did calculate
even closer than you could have
wished a.. III! tz
""And our being missed-how can
that be accounted for If the earth was
the object of attack? How can the at:
trncted object miss the magnet and
pass on as this body seems to have
Sdone?" III "A III, Y
1T cannot And that Is the very
thing that proves to us that the earth
Z WINS not the magnet in this case, and
It was the error on my part which
tends to explain the miss. The body
which passed us was and undoubtedly
at this nom emit Ia 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 a comet passes q
certain point every so many years. In
any event it took small notice Of us
mo more In fact than had we been q
afn
be In Its path"
s"But why did not the earth divert
this much smaller body to itself when
they were In such close contact? S
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, az 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
q 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
4 are only kept from falling into It by
their awful momentum, the speed Of
! some Of them at that period of their
night being over million miles an
I hour These are the possible solutions
which occur to me at this time. How
ever, am free to admit that my rea-
!. sonlng faculties have been consider
ably disturbed, and tomorrow / may
4 entirely reverse my opinion OF to-
night" 4j5 IN I.
did it touch US at all?"
Il think notexcept atmospherical-
fly." ..i !,
why the vibrations, the winds, the
terrible air pressure and the vacuum
in which we all so nearly perished? 2"
More speculation. The earth un-
doubtedly sensed the approach Of the
mysterious stranger and evidenced It
to the extent Of quivsrs of apprehen-
sion. The other physical manifesto
tons 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
their buffeting atmospheres, supposing
that the visitor, carried its own atmos-
phere along with 1t. or the contact OF
: its solid body itself with our atmos-
phere in case it had none OF It's own.
The result would have been practical
" the same in either case. Now for
the sake OF the argument let us as
sumo the earth to be ball as large
40 an apple. and our friend Of q few
moments ago to be a 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
ball past the larger one 80 closely that