The Earth-Tube

by Gawain Edwards

  “The debate in Congress will be a long one, I’m afraid. Though the fists of foes are already beating on our doors, there will be backward representatives and senators who cannot see!”

  In this prediction he was not disappointed. When the President, flanked by the influential men he had summoned to Lis aid, had presented his proposition, a debate broke out which promised to last for weeks. Senators and representatives, puzzled, suspicious, and jealous, began a great hubbub of questionings and denunciations. Led by the veteran Senator Hamblin, from the Pacific Northwest, the obstructionists cast aspersions and indulged in innuendo.

  “Shall we,” asked their leader, “surrender thus lightly human rights which have come down to us from the Magna Carta? Should we not, gentlemen, rather strike back in resentment at those who, seeking perhaps to further their own ambitions,14 would become members of this autocratic board?”

  While this debate went on, more than three million men were under arms, and an additional two million, mustered from the two Americas, were learning the absurd manual of arms in a hundred training camps and were marching and wheeling and stopping to commands as if the invaders could be repelled by automatons or scared by khaki uniforms and hand grenades.

  From all over the continents men and boys, stirred by the events of the spring, had volunteered to fight, though what they hoped to do against an enemy which moved in armored tanks was not clear. The vast machinery of war, laid out in normal and peaceful times, went about the mobilization with its head in the ground and its ears stopped, accepting the patriotic sacrifice of millions of young Americans without a tremor and with the best of grace. Men were mustered in and taught to march. A tremendous financial burden was imposed upon the state; many officers received excellent positions; there was a great military clatter and bustle over all the land, but still the enemy, undaunted by display, came inexorably northward.

  From the moment the Asian tanks struck the soil of the Western Hemisphere, the invasion had not really paused for an instant. With the capture of the land south of the Trans-Andean railroad the Asians had moved northwestward from Buenos Aires, falling upon helpless Rosario. Thereafter the influence of the invaders spread northward like a great cancer, moving out from Buenos Aires on the eastern coast and Valparaiso on the west. Along the railroad lines and streams they proceeded, sacking the country as they went.

  Cordoba, the beautiful, was the next to fall, and three days later several huge tanks, moving out of Valparaiso, attacked Coquimbo, destroying it and taking captive thousands of helpless civilians.

  At Coquimbo a new weapon was encountered, the product of the left-hand gun upon the revolving turrets of the huge metal monsters. It was a ray of light, bluish-green in color, which spread fan-wise toward the object at which it was aimed. In the first encounter whole companies of men were struck down by it as if by lightning. More horrible than the feathery jets of vapor earlier used and for which a protective mask had been worked out in the American laboratories, and more effective, it enabled the triumphant tanks to march into the city amid quivering ranks of the vanquished, which lay where they had fallen, writhing in the most horrible tortures of body and mind.15

  The shock of this new attack and the loss of the coast city were still new upon the world when another followed. A large detachment of fighting tanks, accompanied by a fleet of small scouting machines and tenders, moved swiftly up the Parana and came without warning upon Asuncion. By nightfall the city was aflame, and only a handful of the citizens escaped to tell of the horrors they had seen.

  The same day word came that scout planes had sighted a company of tanks approaching Santos, along the coast. All South America was in an uproar. The defense forces, large as they were, stood by helplessly or were busy enough saving themselves from the fate which befell city after city as the inhabitants of the countryside deserted for the hills. Airplanes by the thousands bombed the northward moving monsters, with no effect. Unconquerable and undaunted, the tanks moved according to a wise and well-thought-out plan. Neither high explosive nor massed attack could turn them for a moment aside.

  In this atmosphere of fear and uncertainty the South American senators and representatives were for immediately adopting the suggestion of the President. But the north. there were many there who still felt reasonably safe. There is a thing about danger when it is far away. it loses its tearfulness. No man in the Pacific Northwest could argue, for instance, that the danger did not threaten him as surely as it threatened any in the south. But it was not so near; it was not so imminent. He was not ready yet to give up what he pleased to call his inalienable rights in such a cause.

  Of a like mind were his Congressional representatives. They argued, pleaded, cajoled, and ridiculed. They made false appeals to national and state sentiment. They pretended a disbelief in the wisdom of the Constitution makers, who had allowed a provision such as Article 17 to remain in the document. When, on April 8, a week after they had convened, it was reported that Antofagasta had fallen, they began using methods which were frankly obstructionary. The South American representatives, many of them no longer having either homes or constituents, writhed under the knowledge that tanks were already approaching Sucre from the south, that Iquique was threatened. The President, worn by the strain of war and political obstruction, appeared before the Congress two days later, April 10, to make a last plea for action before it was too late. There was talk of revolution in the south. The Central Americas were flaming in revolt. The defense armies were scattered and in full retreat on all fronts. The whole machinery of war had broken down, and there was no power, no single dominant head, to halt the disorder and set the defense on a going basis again.

  “I must have the power; I must have the money and the backing; I must have the advice I need, the information, the organization,” declared the President. “It is no longer a question of democracy and individual right here; it is a question of life or death. In a few more weeks your deliberations will be cut short by an Asian tank; your Magna Carta torn to shreds by a slave driver!”

  The filibuster continued for another week. It came to an end when word reached the north that Santos, threatened for days by the invaders, had fallen and been burned. Overnight, fearing the movement of the hostile tanks upon Rio de Janeiro, the capital of South America had been hastily moved to Caracas, and thousands of refugees were pouring out of Rio in boats, afoot, and by every possible means of travel, abandoning the city to its fate.

  The shock of this blow was decisive. For once numbed by the news, the obstructionists were silent, and the South American members took matters into their own hands. The following day, April 16, the President was notified that his request had been granted by an unanimous vote and that the country was officially in the hands of the five members of the War Council, who were endowed with unlimited power for the prosecution of the war.

  II

  The President lost no time in calling together his War Council. They met for the first time in the inner office of his suite in Washington: Dr. Scott, King, the Secretary of War, and Senor Garcia, small and quiet. a man of few words, but one who knew every phase of the South American temperament; a man upon whom the Council depended to quell the threatened revolts in the South and restore faith in the Federal Government.

  “Dr. Angell,” the President asked, “have you succeeded in obtaining a sample of this Asian metal?”

  “No,” admitted the Secretary. “A party equipped with chisels and hammers and electric drills landed close to the causeway mouth and tried to knock off a chip, but though they were not interfered with in any way, they could not break a portion loose. They reported that the stuff appeared to have been flowed together, or fused, like glass. There was neither joint nor crack; nothing to get a chisel or a drill into.”

  “Then, after all these weeks, we are as helpless in defending ourselves from the invaders as we were at the beginning?”

  “Well. yes,” reluctantly admitted the Secretary, “with the exception that we hav
e devised an armor to-protect our troops from the Asian vapor, and we h^e recently perfected a shield which tends to counteract the effect of the Asian ray.”

  “Your soldiers can thus save themselves from danger?”

  “Yes.”

  “But at the same time they cannot act in any way to defend the civilians or protect the cities from attack?”

  “Well. no.”

  The telephone at the President’s elbow rang suddenly, viciously. The room grew quiet as the Chief Executive lifted the receiver. Orders had been given that the council room was not to be disturbed except for the most urgent reasons. The ringing of the bell was therefore like a signal of disaster.

  “Hello,” the President said. Immediately his face grew serious. He listened to the message quietly, once or twice barking a question. At length he laid the receiver down.

  “It was from South America,” he said slowly. “Rio has fallen.”

  This announcement was greeted with silence except from Senor Garcia, who uttered a sharp exclamation of sorrow. Expected as the fall of Rio had been, he alone of the five persons in the room had felt it as a personal loss. It was his native city and the erstwhile seat of the government of which he was the head.

  “The news was particularly unpleasant,” the President continued gravely. “The Asians for the first time at Rio used a new weapon, a kind of air vibrator which so rocked the atmosphere that the ear-drums of every one within range of the tanks were split. So powerful were the concussions, according to witnesses, that the effect was similar to that upon fish in a dynamited pool. Fortunately, the range was short, but buildings and bridges toppled under the beating of the vibration.16 The Asian tanks stalked like demons through the beauties of Rio. The city is a smoking ruin now.”

  Dr. Scott was suddenly on his feet. So they have a third and deadlier weapon!” he exclaimed. “I was afraid of that! In the center of this old earth what may they not have found to burn and torture us with?”

  “There is more to be feared from the weapons they have not yet demonstrated than from those we have had experience with,” the old scientist went on more calmly. “Fortunately their rays, vibrations, and vapor jets are of short range; they affect only persons in the immediate vicinity of their attack. But unless I am mistaken, these fellows have something up their sleeves more deadly and demoralizing than any of these relatively puny forces. It is against these other weapons that we must also prepare; weapons which at present we know nothing of!”

  It was at that point that King Henderson arose and addressed the President. In the atmosphere of despair and frustration which had settled not only over the members of the War Council, but over the entire American continent, his courage was like a ray of light.

  “In my opinion,” he began, “we are only wasting time talking and speculating about these things. There is only one way to beat these people, and that is to send a spy to learn their secrets. He might have to go as far as the mouth of the earth-tunnel itself. He might have to travel through to Asia before he found what he was looking for. But only when we have knowledge of this new metal, how it is made, and more important, how it is destroyed, will we be able to tackle the Asians man to man.”

  A silence followed his remarks. The President and Dr. Scott agreed.

  “Your suggestion is hardly a new one,” the President commented. “In the regular course of military affairs it is usual to send spies into the enemy camp, and this has already been done. More than a hundred men trained in military espionage have already gone; most of them never came back, and those who did return knew nothing more than when they departed.”

  “Exactly,” said King, “but their failure in a case like this should most surely have been expected. A spy who would learn what we must know would not only have to be brave and clever; he would have to be a scientist as well. Otherwise, how could he recognize and understand the processes he bad been sent to investigate? A young man trained in science must be your spy.”

  The President nodded. “It’s what I’ve been thinking,” he replied. “But who? Whom could we send?”

  “How about some of my technical experts?” asked the Secretary of War. “There are some fine young men there who could do the job.”

  The President appeared to be considering the proposal. “Perhaps they could,” he returned slowly, “and perhaps it would be only a useless sacrifice. Like your officers, Dr. Angell, your technicians are bitten with the military virus. Their minds retain, but their heads are thick.”

  “But surely. “ began the Secretary with asperity, but he was cut off by the President’s upraised hand. He had observed that King had something more to say.

  “Henderson,” he said, “I beg your pardon for taking up the conversation before you had finished. Did you have a suggestion along this line?”

  King came properly to his feet again before he replied.

  “I was only going to add,” he said, “that I made the suggestion about espionage because I’d like to try the job myself. if you can’t find a better man.”

  The effect of this reply was electrical. Dr. Scott stiffened imperceptibly in his chair. The Secretary made an exclamation of surprise, and the President arose and took King kindly by the hand.

  “We haven’t doubted your courage, Henderson,” he said evenly, “but. you are too valuable here. Let us try it first with others. and if they lose. then you may go.”

  Dr. Scott also stood up, regarding his associate quietly. There were tears in the old man’s eyes. “It is almost certain death you are asking for,” he declared. “I am proud of you. but I am sure there is some better way.”

  He turned abruptly to the others.

  “In fact,” he said, “I may already be on the way to a solution of our problems. Since I first began to think of this Asian metal I’ve been working on a ray of disintegration which I believe will ultimately destroy it.

  “The announcement, I’ll admit, is premature. I have only now got track of this ray; I haven’t yet discovered it. But if telling you will serve to prevent the wanton loss of any additional American lives. “

  He paused uncertainly.

  The President came forward eagerly with a question.

  “Can you say how soon you will be able to show results?” he demanded.

  The old scientist slumped back into his chair, shaking his head a little wearily. “I’m tinkering at it almost day and night,” he replied. “It may be only a matter of days. also it may be that I’ll never find it.”

  “In that case,” said the President, “allow us to give you every aid possible. But in the meantime we’d better send out the spies.”

  He turned brusquely toward Dr. Angell, who was rather white and shaken, like the others, by the sudden serious turn of events.

  “Detail two of your young men to make this attempt,” the President directed. “Use your own judgment. and theirs. as to how it should be done. But mind you pick your cleverest. We must have no bungling. They must return or send the necessary information as soon as possible. I’ll give them. two weeks!”

  III

  In the night a small airplane crossed over the ruins of what had been Buenos Aires and landed beyond the blackened battleground. Two men got out and shook hands gravely, without a word. One wore the clothing of a ragged old man. He walked with difficulty as if his joints were stiff with much hobbling. The other was pilot of the plane.

  For a moment they stood there in the silence, listening. No sound was to be heard. The known enemy camps were miles away, and in the bruised and blackened site where they stood there was not even animal life to break the stillness.

  “Be here in two weeks,” said the old man at length. “If you find me. well, you will find me. If not, report at once to Washington. That’s all.”

  The two shook hands again, and the old one moved slowly away on his stick. When he had gone a short distance the engine of the airplane roared, and the ship rose easily into the darkness.

  At nearly the same hour, a litt
le over a hundred miles away, another man was creeping along the seashore north and east of what had once been Montevideo. Near by there was a long finger of land which reached out into the ocean until it was lost in the darkness and the faintly visible motion of the sea. At the land end of the causeway the great curved door was open a little crack, perhaps as wide or wider than a man, and through the opening came a yellow glimmer of light. The wayfarer turned his feet cautiously toward the illumination, and when he had reached the unguarded office he stood beside it and peeped around the edge. A little later he walked through the door and disappeared.

  King and Anna, sitting in Dr. Scott’s library in New York, heard with mingled feelings that the two technicians had been successfully launched upon their dangerous visit to the camps of the enemy. Over the telephone the Secretary, who had just received reports from his base camps in South America, explained that he had every confidence in the two men he had selected for this mission, and they were bound to succeed.”

  “Secretary Angell is always optimistic,” commented King.

  “But surely he is right this time,” Anna returned. “It won’t be hard for those young men to get the information.” There was a note of dread and foreboding in her voice as she went on, exclaiming suddenly: “But King. if they should fail. !” She left the rest unsaid.

  If King heard, he made no sign. He was busy with his own thoughts, revolving the Asian puzzle in his mind, trying to bring from it a clear plan of action and defense.

  “The thing must be simple,” he said, half aloud. “It must be so simple that it has eluded us! It would mean something to me, Anna, if I were to be the one to find out that secret.”

  His companion shuddered, but did not answer.