Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1930-10-11

fallO l1lCl1 1lC SiiliiiON 0hO'OAy GAM
went back to his tube!
Sounds most interesting" I COM
mented. How, may I ask?"
His answer was for all of us. my
friends" he turned and cried, Il in
yite you to share in the honors in
what will be the first successful ex-
petition ever made to the planet of
Mars I have selected you gentle
men because each of you have shown
unusual interest in the subject; Mr..
Brent, through his recent book; Mr.
Brown because consider him one OF
the foremost meteorologists today;
my good old friend, MIR. Heaton, be-
cause he is an astronomer"
And so that was the game! 1t
turned out that we were not in an
ordinary room, or laboratory, but in
fact the forward end of huge cigar
shaped, thick metal tube, the rear
end of which was constructed in
sections, each section containing
enough explosive to lift mountain.
Secrecy? why secrecy, Mr..
Brent?" Mr.. Turner whirled around
and faced me- Listen, it was pub
licity that ruined the Layton ex-
petition few years back. Thousands
of the curiousl If hadn't"
Messrs. Heaton and Brown had
contracted the Turner point OF view
and were acting like couple OF
children-inspecting gadget after
gadget, peering into this tube and
that. I'm not saying I wasn't doing
the same. I do say that the express
sion on my face was different
vastly.
1t doesn't affect me like that. I'm
only writer Give me a group OF
characters, pipe, and the quiet OF
my study, and I too, can become
enthusiaStic-I can talk with them,
laugh with them, curse with them,
and if the plot calls for 1t, can
kill them.
But this-this is a bit thick for
me.
Still, if you can show me a Brent
that ever showed yellow" if you can
point out to me a Brent that ever
showed the white of his eyes-Tll eat
your hat.
and we have barely thirty
minutes, my friends!"
He made us strip to the skin.
He daubed us all over with some
sort of stuff that looked like dough,
muttering about friction" d
heat" 1t wasn't long before we
looked like four trained polar bears!
He gave us each box of pills.
He turned the gadget marked Ar
tificial Air"
The little hole we had practically
crawled through, was caulked, bolted'
and riveted.
He made us lie down in long iron
boxes that looked like collins. Soft
and comfortable inside.
He took one last look at his fav-
orite tube, then climbed into his own
contraption and beckoned for us TO
close down the lids. =.
EVEN NOW I WANT to shiver at
the thought of what happened next.
The roar that came to me sounded
like the crumbling of a huge city OF
stone. I had sudden feeling that
I was being cast into the depths OF
He'll! The inch-thick coat OF stuff
covering my skin became like hard
rubber. My arms, feet, and legs
felt as big as a dirigible. My head
felt larger. My eyeballs felt still
larger. A million horned devils were
kissing into my ears. One OF them
got me by the ear and spun me
round-it seemed.
Now don't ask me how long this
sort of thing went on. don't know.
It might have been day, week,
or a month. To me it was an
eternity before I even heard that
first shrek. 1t seemed to me that
that was the proper thing to do. ],
too screamed. Another thought
smote me and I heaved against the
iron lid. 1t went up like a balloon.
Still yelling, I tumbled over the
side onto the metal floor, positively
unable to stand on my feet.
Mr.. Turner, Mr.. Heaton, Mr..
Brown-all fiattened out on the
floor and crawling around. Suddenly
there came the most eerie noises.
Ten million monsters, seemingly. Mr.
T,,rpar oro u,lad oror IN tho loroar Of