Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1934-11-30

IN micnigan was the nrst OF q series OF
shocks which increased steadily In
violence for the next forty-eight hours.
and which never afterwnrd wholly
ceased. Hendron had chosen his spot
well, for It was one Of the relatively
few portions of the undeluged world
which was not reduced to an untsn-
able wasteland OF smoking rock and
creeping lava.
AS hour by hour the earth presented
new surfaces to the awful gravlra-
tIonal pull Of the Bronson BodIes
series Of stupendous cataclysms took
place. Underneath the brittle Stag
which man considers both solid and
enduring lie thousands Of miles Of
dense compressed molten material
The earth's crust does not hold back
that material. II is kept In place only
by a delicate adjustment Of gravity;
and the interference Of the Bronson
Bodies distorted that balance. The
earth burst open like a ripe grapel
From geological standpoint the tides
which swept over were a phenomenon
Of but trifilng magnitude.
The center Of the continent Of AZ
RIGA split in two as II mighty cleaver
had come down on 1t. and out Of the
grisly incision poured an unQuench-
able tumult Of the hell that dwells
within the earth. Chasms yawned In
the ocean floor. swallowing levels Of
the sea and returning II instantaneous
ly in continents Of steam. The great
plateau Of inner Tibet dropped like an
express elevator nine hundred feet.
South America was riven into two
islands, one extending north and south
in the shape of a sickle. and the OTTER.
roughly circular, composed Of all that
remained Of the high lands Of Brazil.
North America reeled and shuddered.
split, snapped, doomed and leaped.
The Rocky mountains lost their Immo-
bility and danced like waves Of water.
From the place that had been Yellow
stone park a mantle Of lava was
spread over thousands Of square miles.
The coastal plain along the Pacific dis
appeared, and the water moved up to
dash itself In fury against a range Of
active volcanoes that extends from
Nome to Panama.
Gases, steam and ashes welled from
ten thousand vents into the eartf's at
nosphere. The sun went out, the
stars were made invisible. Blistering
heat blew to the ends OF the earth.
The polar ice melted and a new raw
land emerged, fiery and shattered. mo-
bile and catastrophe.
Those human beings who survived
the worlds whlte-hot throes were sur.
vivors for the most part through good
fortune. Few escaped through design
--on the entire planet only n dozen
places which had been picked by the
biologists as refugees remained hab-
liable.
Upon millions poured oceans Of
seething magma carrying death more
terrible than the death which rolled
on the tongue of the great tides. Ths
air which was breathed by other mill
lions was suddenly choked with sui
phurous fumes and they fell like
gassed soldiers, stranglIng In TIE
streets Of their destroyed cities Live
steam. blown with the violence Of
hurricane, scalded populous centers
and barren steppes impartially. From
a sky that had hitherto deluged man
kind only with rain. snow and hail
fell now burning torrents and red hot
sleet The very earth itself slowed in
its rotation, sped up again. sucked and
dragged through space at the caprice
Of the bodies In the sky above. II be
came girdled In smoke and steam. and
blasts of hot gas; and upon II as Bron-
son Alpha and Beta drew away, there
fell torrential rains which hewed down
rich land to the bare rock, which
cooled the issue from the earth to vast
metallic oceans. and which were ac-
companied by lightnings that furnished
the Internal scenery with incessant r.
Elimination, and by thunder which
blended intellectually with the terres-
trial din.
At Hendron's camp forty-eight hours
Ia the Pit were experienced; and yet
Hendron's camp was on one Of the
safest and least disturbed corners Of
the world.
The FIRST black clouds which Tony