The Raymer enterprise., 1914-02-19
CHAPTER IIl.-continued.

CHAPTER ill.-continued.
Selection was made and the seven
chosen ones departed in several differ
ent 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 chance decreed that
Alan, Clay and Professor Desmond
should remain. Judge Fulton as mas
ter of the house remained with them.
They gathered themselves into
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.
I'VE have not only witnessed but are
living to tell OF 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
tina. 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, did calculate
even closer than you could have
wished"
And our being missed-how can
that be accounted for II 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!'
1T 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
WhASA P0obCu I'd WdS uuu 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 1t
has an orbit Of we'll nigh incalcul-
able extent. and like comet passes a
certain point every SO many years. In
any event it took small notice of US
no more In fact than had we been
soap bubble. We merely happened to
be in its path"
But why diI not the earth divert
this much smaller body to itses when
they were in such close contact"
That may be accounted for by as
suming 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 It shot through our sphere o.
influence by sheer momentum, as an
iron ball may be thrown or shot past
a magnet which would divert and re-
tain 1t had not its momentum carried
1t 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, / 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 1t touch US at all?"
II think not-except atmospherical.
H."
why the vibrations, the winds, the
terrible air pressure and the vacuum
in which we all so nearly perished?"
More speculation. The earth un-
doubtedly sensed the approach of the
mysterious stranger and evidenced 1t
to the extent Of quivers Of apprehen-
sion. The other physical manifesto
tions 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
it, solid body itself with our atmos-
phere In case 1t had none Of its own.
The result would have been practical
ly the same In either case. Now for
the sake Of the argument let us as
sumo the earth to be ball a. large
o. an apple, and our friend of . few
moments ago to be q much smaller
ball-say the size Of a pea. For the
purpose Of the illustration we will also
suppose the larger ball which repre-
sents the earth to be moving but
slowly. Now you throw the smaller
ball past the larger one 70 closely that