Page:Stirring Science Stories, February 1941.djvu/34

 snatched up the papers from the desk. Before the surprised lawyer could intervene, he had begun to strip the paper into many tiny pieces. His fury lent him strength and he yelled joyously, "I'll scatter this spawn of Satan to the winds. None shall know its secret."

Suddenly his expression changed. Every muscle of his body seemed to jump and twist. The scream that seemed to tear itself from his very soul frightened the lawyer to his feet.

"My God! My nerves are on fire! I cannot think! I cannot think! It's death!"

HE lawyer's ponderous form knocked over the squeaking chair in his haste to reach the limp figure. He bent over the body which was covered with countless tiny white pieces of paper and gazed at the upturned face, that registered peace and calm, which a few seconds ago had been convulsed with agony from some inner struggle. The black, puffy eyelids were gently closed and the drawn, haggard skin was smoothed over the sharp bones of the face. The hair was pushed back, and a little speck of silver glittered on the skull in the half-smothered light of the sun.

Sliding his hand from the slumped man's chest, the bulky one picked up the telephone.

"Hello? Police Station. Is that you, Sarge? Yeah, it's me. Something just happened in my office. A client dropped dead. Wasn't so ordinary. The guy was insane, a regular maniac—worked himself into a frenzy That's right, just a common case of heart failure." 

 While it may not be known very well to the general public, mail has been carried by rockets and rocket mail stamps command a high price from those who collect them.

The first such flights were made in Austria by Friedrich Schmiedl. In his experiments in the construction and firing of large size rockets, powered by powder or liquid explosives, Herr Schmiedl placed packets of mail in the jackets of his rockets, and mailed the letters after the flight. In several instances, governments have given semi-official status to the rocket-mail.

The earliest instance of rocket mail flight was February 2nd. 1931. Since then flights have been made in virtually every country of the globe and a rocket stamp catalogue today would have a fairly extensive listing.

Throughout 1931 to 1936 rockets were carrying mail across streams, from mountain to village, from British Channel Isle to Isle, from ships to the shore, and from the shore to lonely lighthouses in India.

The first rocket flights carrying mail in the Western Hemisphere were directly creditable to a science-fiction club—the New York Branch of the International Cosmos Science Club, which flew two large rockets carrying mail bearing special stamps September 22, 1935.

Since then flights have been made across the Mexican border and elsewhere.

Rocket mail is still not a regular government service, but we shall not be in the least surprised when regular four-hour rocket mail service is established across the Atlantic in a few years. 