Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 08.djvu/6



''What is here set down is the fruit of long and careful research among disjointed records left by survivors of the terrible events described. The writer wishes frankly to say that, instances, he has followed the course which all historians are compelled to take by using his imagination to round out the picture. But he is able conscientiously to declare that in the substance of his narrative, as well as in every detail which is specifically described, he has followed faithfully the accounts of eye-witnesses, or of those who were in a position to know the truth of the wonderful events which they related.'' (Author's Note.)

he darted at a book-sheif, pulled down a ponderous , tome, flapped it open in a clear space on the floor, and dropped on his knee3 to consult it. After turning a leaf or two he found what he was after, read down the page, keeping a Anger on the lines, and, having finished his reading, jumped to his feet and hurried hack to the stool, on which he mounted so quickly that it was impossible to a gnome of amazing bi'ain capacity and prodigious see how he managed it without an upset. Instantly power of concentration, sat bent over a writing he made a new diagram, and then fell to figuring desk with a huge sheet of cardboard before him, furiously on the pad, making his pencil gyrate so on which he was swiftly drawing geometrical fast that its upper end vibrated like the wing of and trigonometrical figures. Compasses, T-squares, a dragon-fly. CHAPTER I Cosmo Versal N undersized, lean, wizen-faced) man, with an immense bald head, as round and smooth and shining as a giant soap- bubble, and a pair of beady black eyes, set close together, so that he resembled rulers, protractors, and ellipsographs obeyed the touch of his Angers as if inspired with life. The room around him was a jungle of terrestrial and celestial globes, chemists' retorts, tubes, pipes, and all the indescribable apparatus that modern science has invented, and which, to the uninitiated, seems as incomprehensible as the ancient para- phernalia of alchemists and astrologers. The walls were lined with book shelves, and adorned along the upper portions with the most extraordinary photographs and drawings. Even the ceiling wa3 covered with charts, some representing the sky, while many others were geological and topogra- g^m^^^nHBl phical pictures of the face of the earth. Beside the drawing- board lay a pad of paper, and occasionally the little man nervously turned to this, and, grasping a long pencil, made elaborate cal- iculations, covering the paper with a sprinkling of mathematical symbols that looked like magnified animalcules. While he worked, under a high light of Space," but here the well-known scientist-author has hit upon the effects created upon modern humanity by a second deluge. It is an impressive tale, and not a whit wore improbable than the first Noachian deluge of Biblical days. Only the setting is modern, and the second great ark is, of course, vastly different from that used by Noah. Then, of course, there are a great many other things in "The Second Deluge" that Noah never even dreamt of, and that surely never happened to him. What these things are you wilt find out by reading this entranc- ing classic. At last he threw down the pencil, and, encircling his knees with his clasped arms, sank in a heap on the stool. The lids dropped over his shining eyes, and he became buried in thought., When he reopened his eyes and unhent his brows', his gaze happened to be directed toward the row of curious big photographs which ran like a pic- tured frieze round the upper side of the wall of the room. A casual observer might have thought that the little man had been amusing himself by photo- graphing the explosions of fireworks on a Fourth of July night; but it was evident by his expression that these singular pic- ^ipjj fl i j l pi^M M »— q tures had no connection with civic pyrotechnics, but must represent some- thing of a most pro- nounced fatal and stu- pendous import. The little man's face took on a rapt look, in which wonder and fear seemed to be blended. With a sweep of his hand he included the whole ser- ies of photographs in a comprehensive glance, and then, setting his gaze up- from a single window placed well up near the ceil- on a particularly bizarre object in the center, he be- ing, his forehead contracted into a hundred wrink- les, his cheeks became feverous, his piercing eyes glowed with inner fire, and drops of perspiration ran down in front of his ears. One would have thought that he was laboring to save his very soul and had but a few seconds of respite left. Presently he threw down the pencil, and with astonishing agility let himself rapidly, but care- fully, off the stool on which he had been sitting, keeping the palms of his hands on the seat beside his hips until he felt his feet touch the floor. Then gan to speak aloud, although there was nobody to listen to him. "My GodJ" he said. "That's it! That Lick photograph of the Lord Eosse nebula is its very image, except that there's no electric fire in it. The same great whirl of outer spirals, and then comes the awful central mass — and we're going to plunge straight into it. Then quintrillions of tons of water will condense on the earth and cover it like a universal cloudburst. And then good-by to the human race — unless — unless — I, Cosmo Versal,