Page:Amazing Stories Volume 10 Number 13.djvu/135

Rh will he please try and get in touch with us? We are now signing off and will continue to listen as long as we can on three channels, twenty-five meters, one hundred meters, and two hundred and fifty meters. N7XA signing off."

The horror of this moment struck the listeners dumb with amazement. Not more than one hundred people still living of the millions who had once inhabited the earth. Wiped out in almost a single moment by a scientific mistake. It was a blow from which the earth would never recover!

"Call Mary and her Mother, will you please, Alan? Tell them what we have heard! This is more terrible than I had thought. I am going to try to communicate with N7XA in code."

"I can impose a code message on my wave," Dr. Howell continued. "It may be that we can reach them with that, since they mention it as an interfering wave."

ILENTLY they stood by while Dr. Howell spelled out his message slowly and precisely: "Calling N7XA! Howell calling. Heard your message. Interfering wave is mine. Am trying to strike the beat note and set earth in motion. Answer—signing off!"

"Hello, Dr. Howell," the answer came by phone. "We are all glad to hear that you are alive. You are getting results. The sun is rising higher very slowly but in the space of a hundred hours we can notice changes. Are you having trouble with time? Our telechron clocks have all stopped, and we must rely on our watches. We have our own power plant here, everything else is off.

"You probably have not heard but practically all the buildings here have collapsed, killing outright most of those living in the cities. We saw hundreds of de-gravitated human bodies pass our studio, swept seaward by a strong west wind. Probably hundreds of thousands were swept to their death in the sea in this way. If any were left on land they may be dead now from starvation or freezing. We will listen again for you twenty-four hours later. Good-by, Dr. Howell and party!"

The wave generator again took up its task of righting a disordered world, and, except for the daily talk with N7XA, those living on what had once been the Crawling Stone Island stuck to their work. And success did seem assured, for the reports from the eastern radio station were encouraging. Too late they realized the vital flaw in Dr. Howell's plan, for one more message was destined to be the last ever received.

"Hello, Dr. Howell! Hello, Dr. Howell! Can you hear us? The sun is getting too hot for us, and we are leaving by auto at once. We will head west and try to keep ahead of the sun. We do not now believe that you can increase the speed of the earth's rotation at a fast enough rate to prevent burning the American Continent to a crisp. Answer. Signing off."

"We are nearly out of fuel for our power plant," Dr. Howell spelled the words slowly out in code. "We cannot continue work for more than a few periods longer. Suggest that you come west and join us here. Good-by. Signing off."

"Well, that lets us out," sighed Dr. Howell. "I have learned that there are some things which can't be done. I believe that this is one of them."

He turned the switch on the power control panel and the hum of the generator died away, never to be heard again on the earth. Was this then, the end of all things? Yet the edge of the slowly rising sun appeared above the