CHAPTER VIII

A Rescue and a Tragedy

THEY milled about raising a ceaseless dust which settled slowly in the calm suffocating heat, and still they held tenaciously to their places near the shore.

Little boats and large ones ploughed here and there seeking a point of vantage back of the long watery lane governed by government cutters.

Someone shouted: "There it comes!"

The shout was taken up and tossed from man to man. Heads craned and all eyes strained toward the east. The wave of humanity on shore surged forward. There were cries, the shouting of officers and shouting of the eager, curious mass they sought to hold in check. Ten thousand hands shaded ten thousand upturned eyes from the glare of the high noonday sun.

A huge monoplane swept in from the sea bringing passengers from down coast to witness the most marvelous landing in the history of men. And when the mob saw the new comer was no more than a huge plane, it wailed in disappointment; but did not retreat in the slightest. Minutes passed. The sultry heat seemed almost unbearable. The rails of the cutter were like furnace rods fresh from the fire. Clifford shielded Crystal with her lavender parasol, taking the sun himself. And then from out the horizon sped a long gray shape, silent as an oncoming hawk. It was not riding high as had been expected, but hugging the sea. Even as they watched it spanked the water and sent a long silver veil of spray sparkling into the sun.

Crystal caught her hands together and stood petrified unable to bring her glasses to her eyes for a better view. Clifford felt a thrill not wholly accounted for by the success of the rescue. Something historic was taking place, something which held a marvelous prophecy—that some day this miracle should become an hourly occurrence and earth folks would ride in from the cosmos to land with exactness at every port of the world.

The ship came speeding on, skipping upon the water, like a flat rock tossed across the surface of a pond. She dove and Stortz groaned and leaned far over the rail. She rose, her wet steel glistening in the sunlight and still Crystal made not the slightest move.

A mile away Clifford saw that something was riding her back. He brought his forgotten glasses to his eyes. It was a rocket! One that seemed strangely familiar even at that distance. It looked like the one that Briggs had made for the rescue flight. There were eleven after all! Briggs must have fired the other one in hopes of sinking the ship.

"Good God!" Clifford breathed and the girl turned about and found her voice at last.

"Is he dead?" she screamed, "Is he dead?"

Clifford shook his head, but his heart sank for he felt that it would be only a question of minutes now. That eleventh rocket was dragging down the ship. It was diving again! Plowing deep and then wallowing back to the surface like a wounded sea beast.

Clifford turned to the captain of the cutter. "Have you a rifle on board?"

"Why, yes," the captain answered plainly puzzled.

"Have one brought to me at once, sir. It may save the satellite." The Captain barked an order. Clifford looked again at the satellite wallowing along, half under water.

"Get to as quick as you can, Captain," he begged.

The Captain shouted an order and the cutter got under way.

The satellite was still moving swiftly, but losing its speed like a passenger train drawing into a station. Someone handed Clifford a rifle. He took it and did not look around, his eyes still upon the satellite.

"What are you going to do?" Crystal cried.

"Briggs' bullet set off the rocket in the yard. I am hoping mine will shake her loose from the ship." With a scream of discharging gases, the rocket soared away with such rapidity the eye could hardly follow its long gray shape into the air. But Clifford was not trying to watch its meteorlike flight. He was looking at the satellite. The shock had sent her under again, but before she was swallowed by the sea something long and rigid toppled from the soaring rocket and struck the glistening hull. A man had fallen stiffly from the rocket and as he struck the hull he shattered into a thousand flying ruby crystals which sparkled in the sun. Frozen in the absolute cold of space he had shattered like rotten glass. Clifford thought of the little rubber ball he had dropped into the container of liquid air.

"It's BB!" the girl screamed and covered her eyes with her hands. Clifford caught her and looked down at the undulating surface of the glittering sea. The satellite was nowhere to be seen.

For a moment not a sound came from sea or deck, except the lapping of waves and the throb of engines. Clifford still held Crystal and felt her shaken with despair. He did not know how to comfort her. All that he could do was to stand stiffly and think.

Suddenly he heard another bark of orders. A running of hurried feet across deck. The confused shouting and reshouting of orders.

Boats were being lowered! Why?

He looked again down at the sea and saw a feeble churning of the water near the place where the satellite had gone down. A head came above the ways and then sank from sight. Rothberg! He must have broken the porthole glass and come up as the ship sank.

A week later Rothberg was about again. He beamed at Clifford as he came into the room. Crystal was standing beside his chair watching Clifford with a new admiration in her eyes.

"There is one thing that puzzles me," Clifford said, "And that is what killed Briggs? What was he doing up there anyway?"

Rothberg's mouth drew firm and Crystal looked at the pattern of a rich rug which was spread across the floor.

"The answer is very simple," Rothberg answered after a pause. "I saw him make contact and watched him through the porthole. He opened the door of the rocket and it seemed his chest literally blew open like a rotten tire under too much pressure. He had a sledge hammer in his hand and I took it he planned to break the porthole glass. No doubt he would have succeeded but he overlooked the fact that the pressure of air inside his lungs was fifteen pounds to the square inch. He had on some kind of a jacket to protect him from the cold, but the explosion blew it wide open." Rothberg shook his shoulders as though ridding himself of what had occurred up there, then he said confidently:

"We're going it for satellites right this time, my boy. Fit them for passengers as well as mail. It's a big thing that we have circled the earth in two hours, but eventually we may run an air line between here and Venus. You know the main problem of interplanetary flight has been that of landing the ship, and now we have solved that!"

He put his large veined hands upon the girl. "Crystal, little soldier, get out and let us get to work." She turned and left them reluctantly. Clifford watched her until she reached the door. She turned and though neither said a word, a glance between them held a promise that all would turn out right.

THE END

What Is Your Knowledge Of Science?

Test Yourself By This Questionnaire

1. What velocity does the earth have in its orbit? What velocity must a body have to escape from the sun, at the distance of the earth? (Page 777)

2. What speed of ejected gases did Dr. Goddard get in his rocket experiments? (Page 778) 3. What is the atomic weight of iron? (Page 822)

4. What is the name given to the ends of our nerves? To what may our nervous system be likened? Why?

(Page 849)

5. What is the chemical composition of quartz? (Page 859)

6. What are the conditions necessary for life Similar to ours on any planet? (Page 863) 7. What advantages does the moon possess over the earth for astronomical observations? (Page 864) 8. In what part of the solar system is Ganymede? What are some of its characteristics? (Page 867) 9. What are the most important of the endocrine glands? What are their functions? (Page 837) 10. Where is the pituitary gland located? (Page 838)