CHAPTER VIII
PERCY DARROW'S THEORY
Percy Darrow in the police station, where he had been assigned an unusedoffice instead of a cell, amused himself reading the newspapers, of whichhe caused to be brought in a full supply. Theories had begun to claimtheir share of the space which, up to now, the fact stories had completelymonopolized. Darrow, his feet up, a cigarette depending from one corner ofhis mouth, read them through to the end. Then he indulged the white wallsof his little apartment with one of his slow smiles. The simplest of thetheories had to do with comets. The most elaborate traced out an analogybetween the "blind spot" in vision and a "point of rest" in physicalmanifestations--this "point of rest" had just now happened to drift to acrowded center, and so became manifest.
"Ingenious but fantastic youth," was Percy Darrow's tribute to the author,Professor Eldridge of the university.
The "human-interest" stories of both the evening before and those in theextras describing the latest freak in the Atlas Building, Darrow passedover with barely a glance. But certain figures he copied carefully intohis notebook. When he had found all of these, and had transcribed them,they appeared about as follows:
Atlas--Wednesday, 5:25. 3:00 (about): 9 hr. 35 min.
General--Thursday, 6:00. 7:56 (exact): 1 hr. 56 min.
Atlas--Friday, 10:10. 10:48 (exact): 38 min.
On the basis of these latter figures he made some calculations which, whenfinished, he looked on with doubtful satisfaction.
"Need more statistics," said he to himself, "before I can pose as aprophet. Just now I'm merely a guesser."
By now it was afternoon. An official came to announce visitors, and amoment later Helen and her brother came in. As Percy's case was merely oneof detention, or for some other obscurer reason, known only to those whotook their orders from McCarthy, the three were left alone to their owndevices.
At the sight of Helen's trim tailor-clad figure Percy's expressionbrightened to what, in his case, might almost be called animation. Heswept aside the accumulation of papers, and made room for both. After thefirst greetings and exclamations, Helen demanded to know particulars andprospects.
"All right, I'll tell you," agreed Darrow. "I'm thought out; and I want tohear it myself."
Jack looked about him uneasily.
"Is it wise to talk here?" he asked. "I don't doubt they have arrangementsfor overhearing anything that is said."
"I don't think they care what we say," observed Darrow. "They are merelydetaining me on some excuse or another that I haven't even taken thetrouble to inquire about."
"That must astonish them some," said Jack.
"And if they do overhear, I don't much care. Now," said he, turning toHelen, "we have here three strange happenings comprising twophenomena--the cutting off of the electricity, first in the AtlasBuilding, second in the city at large; and the cutting off of sound in theAtlas. Although we are, of course, not justified in generalizing from oneinstance, what would you think by analogy would be the next thing toexpect?"
"That sound would be cut off in the city," said Helen; "but Jack hasalready delivered me your warning or advice," she added.
"Precisely. Now as to theories of the ultimate cause. Naturally this musthave been brought about either by nature or by man. If by nature, it isexceedingly localized, not to say directed. If by man, he must have insome way acquired unprecedented powers over the phenomena of electricityand sound. These he can evidently, at will, either focus, as on the AtlasBuilding, or diffuse, as over the city. For the moment we will adopt thelatter hypothesis."
"That it is a man in possession of extraordinary powers," said Helen,leaning forward in her interest. "Go on."
"We have, completed, only the phenomena of electricity," continued Darrow;"the phenomena of sound remain to be completed. We observe as to that(a)"--he folded back his forefinger--"the Atlas manifestation lasted aboutnine and a half hours; and (b)"--he folded his middle finger--"the citymanifestation was a little less than two hours."
"Yes," cried Jack, "but then this second--"
"One minute," interrupted Darrow; "let me finish. Now, let us placeourselves in the position of a man possessed of a new toy, or a new powerwhich he has never tried out! What would he do?"
"Try it out," said Jack.
"Certainly; try it out to the limit, to see just what it could do indifferent circumstances. Now, take the lapses of time I have mentioned,and assume, for the sake of argument, that these powers are limited."
"Just how do you mean--limited?" asked Helen.
"I mean exhaustible, like a watering-pot. You can water just so much, andthen you have to go back and fill up again. In that case, we can supposethis man's stream will last nine hours and a half when he dribbles it downon one spot, like the Atlas Building; but it will empty itself in abouttwo hours when he turns her upside down over a whole city. There remainsonly the length of time necessary to refill the water-pot to round out ourhypothesis. That is something more than nine hours and something less thanfifteen."
"How do you get those figures?" demanded Jack.
"The Unknown is anxious, after the Atlas success, to try out his discoveryon the larger scale. He will naturally do so at the first opportunityafter his water-pot is refilled. But he wishes to do so at the firsteffective opportunity. What is the most effective moment? The rush hours.What are the rush hours? From eight to ten, and at six. Since he did notpull off his show in the morning, we are fairly justified in concluding,tentatively, that the water-pot was not full by then, and, as the Atlasphenomena subsided at three of the morning before, the inference isobvious."
"But isn't the most effective time at night, anyway, on account of thelights?" asked Jack.
"Good boy!" approved Darrow. "He might have waited for that. But thecity-wide phenomena ceased at eight the night before; and the Atlas soundphenomena did not occur until ten the next morning--fourteen hours. Now,the most effective time to scare McCarthy was any time after nine.McCarthy arrives as the clock strikes."
Jack shook his head.
"Oh, it's not proof; it's idle hypothesis," admitted Darrow. "We shallhave to test it. But let's go on with it, anyway, and see how it worksout."
"What's McCarthy got to do with it?" demanded Helen.
"That's so, you aren't in touch there." Darrow sketched briefly thesituation as it affected the boss. Helen's eyes were shining withinterest.
"Now," continued Darrow, "having tried out his new power to the limit, ourfriend would begin to use it only as he needed it. There is now no reasonto empty the water-pot entirely. All he wanted to do this morning was toscare McCarthy, and impress the public. He did that in thirty-eightminutes. On the basis of fourteen hours to fill the water-pot, it isevident that he would be rehabilitated, ready for business, in an hour.Therefore, all he is waiting for now is the most effective moment to tryout his city-wide experiment of silence. I imagine that will be aboutsix."
"Sounds reasonable," admitted Jack.
"Reasonable! It's certain!" cried Helen.
Darrow smiled. "No, only a wild hypothesis."
"It'll scare people to death," observed Jack.
"They're scared already; and they're somewhat prepared by the performancethis morning. Besides, I don't see yet that human agency is suspected."
"Don't you think you'd better warn people what is going to happen, andtell them there's nothing to be frightened of?" pleaded Helen.
"No," said Darrow, "I do not. It would confuse the phenomena, and theymust be unconfused in order that I can either prove or disprove myhypothesis. If this lasts about two hours, the fact will go far to proveme right. If the next manifestation comes at about ten the next morning,we shall have established a periodicity, at least. But if the man realizesthat his existence is suspected, he will purposely vary in order to mix meup."
"The next manifestation!" cried Helen. "Then you think they willcontinue--"
"Why not," smiled Darrow, "until he has scared McCarthy out?"
"
Which will it be next time, do you think?"
"Whatever happens, don't be frightened," said Darrow enigmatically.
"It seems to me there is something absurd about all this," said Helen. "Aman with such a discovery, such powers, using them in such a manner, forsuch a petty purpose!"
"He is, of course, crazy," Darrow said quietly; "the methodical logicallunatic--the most dangerous sort."
"What is it he has discovered?" asked Jack.
"I do not know, yet."
"But you suspect?"
Darrow nodded, but would not explain.
"What will be the outcome?"
"I am going to cut loose from science and guess wildly," said Darrow,after a moment. "To-morrow morning, somewhere about ten, McCarthy willdisappear."
"You said that before!" cried Jack.
"Well, I say it again," drawled Darrow.
The Sign at Six Page 8
