CHAPTER VI
A Dangerous Scientist
Julian Epworth returned to consciousness on a luxurious day bed in apleasant plastered room tinted a light green. For several moments hedid not comprehend. Presently he put his hand up to his head, andfound a bandage.
“Just what happened?” he asked curiously, not expecting a reply.
“Take it calmly,” Joan advised. She was sitting by him in a dejectedattitude. “We’re prisoners, and——”
“Where are we?” he demanded impatiently.
She placed her finger on her lips, and pointed at an open door. Theonly thing the young man could see through the door was anotherplastered room tinted blue, and a radio receiving set.
“This is KFI, Los Angeles, California,” he heard come over the radio.“We are now going to hear from Professor Ainslee, the distinguishedastronomer of Mount Wilson Observatory. He is going to tell yousomething about the things that are going on in the moon.”
There was a brief delay, and then Prof. Ainslee’s well-known voicecame over the air.
“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen of Radio Land: Continuing my shorttalks about the marvelous growth on our satellite, I will state thatthe newly discovered lake in the extreme western part of the Sea ofVapours is rapidly getting larger. I should say that it is about amile in diameter at this time. Of course it cannot be water as watercannot exist on the moon. The heat of the sun, shining steadily forfourteen days, would dry it up as there is no air on the moon to givethe water protection. As all readers are aware air forms a blanketover water, and prevents its gradual evaporation. But there iscertainly a dark spot at the point indicated, and the scientific worldis studying it thoughtfully. The spectroscopic investigation statesabsolutely that it is water. This increases the mystery.”
“Ah, ha,” a shrill voice broke out in the adjoining room, “I, thegreatest and mightiest scientist in the world, am the only man who cananswer this mystery. Bring in the prisoners, Kosloff, and let themhear the rest of this astronomical lecture. Perhaps they may beinterested to discover how ignorant their scientists are.”
The speaker had hardly finished when the door was pushed open, andfour men sprang into the green-tinted room, covering Epworth and Joanwith their guns.
“Come,” one of the men commanded in broken English, “the generalwishes to speak to you.”
Epworth got up from the bed, and followed by Joan passed through thedoor guarded by the gunmen. Their captors stopped them in front of alarge mahogany desk. Seated behind this desk was an enormous giant.Epworth instantly recognized him as the man who had prevented theget-away in the Greyhound with a machine gun.
The giant stood up and made an elaborate bow, drawing his immenseheight erect. He was fully eight feet tall, and extended an arm almostas large as Joan’s body. Epworth weighed 160 pounds, and mentallycompared his weight with the appearance of the giant. He was willingto wager that the giant would weigh 350 pounds, and that there was notan ounce of surplus fat about the man’s red-haired body. He thought ofred hair all over the man because the giant’s shirt was open at thethroat and a huge mat of red hair was visible. In addition to this hehad a mass of tousled red hair on his head and a long red beard, whichcame almost to his waist. He was, in fact, a Man Mountain Dean, beardand all.
He smiled at Epworth and Joan, and they thought of horse teeth, andthe nose of Cyrano de Bergerac.
As Joan stepped in front of him he leaned forward, and gave her a hardstare out of his small, twinkling pale blue eyes. At first there was aslight pucker of puzzlement around his big mouth. Then he spoke ingood English in a small shrill voice. His voice was so small and sharpthat it was all Joan could do to keep from laughing. Epworth saw thatshe was about to smile, and punched her lightly in the side, shakinghis head vigorously in the negative.
“It will never do to laugh at him,” he whispered out of the corner ofhis mouth. “Our lives are in his hands.”
“Ah, ha! The beautiful Miss Joan Epworth, flying sister of the notedair man, Julian Epworth,” the giant exclaimed. “I think that she walkslike a fly into our trap.”
He opened a drawer in the mahogany table and pulled out a Los Angelesmagazine. Opening the magazine at a certain page he whirled the sheetaround so that she could see. Then he stared at her again. Joan shrankback from that stare. There was something dangerous about it that shecould not understand.
But she understood the picture in the magazine. It was her ownpicture.
“My lady,” continued the giant with distinguished courtesy of speechbut with a sarcastic stare in his eyes, “that magazine is a year old.I have been keeping it for a purpose. I planned in the near future tovisit Los Angeles with one of my fastest airships, and kidnap you.That picture told me that you were a very charming and fascinatingyoung lady. Now that I see you I realize that the magazine did nottell half of the truth.”
“Just what do you mean by that speech?” Epworth demanded sharply. “Iwill have you to understand this girl is my sister, and is not to behurt or insulted.”
“I am not going to hurt her. I wouldn’t hurt her for a milliondollars. All I am going to do is to make her my wife. We are a littleshort of women up here in the colony, and I have known for a year thatshe would fit in admirably.”
“Marry you, you red-haired brute?” Joan cried passionately. “I shallnever marry you. Besides I do not want a husband. I am just a schoolgirl. I will not be thinking of marrying for ten years.”
“You are old enough—quite old enough. I like them young. But you willhave to be satisfied with a rather crude ceremony. We go very littleon ceremonies here, especially religious ceremonies. There are nopriests here, no churches here, no god to solemnize a marriage. I amthe only god here, but believe me I am a big one. I make and unmakeworlds.”
“You will never call this girl wife,” Epworth said softly. “Not aslong as I live.”
“Then you would fight for her? Fine.” He paused and looked at themwith narrowing eyes. “But I am forgetting the astronomical lecture. Iam the man who is doing things with the moon. I am transforming thatsatellite, which is a boiling caldron for fourteen days and then afreezing Arctic Ocean for fourteen days, into a pleasant place tolive. It will be a place where I can take my sweet comrades, andestablish a colony which will not be annoyed by world dictators ortyrannical democracies.”
He paused and drew his hand across his huge mouth, exposing his horseteeth as his hand left his face. The act proved so repulsive to Joanthat she turned her head. The giant noted this and frowned. The frownwas not pleasant to behold.
“The moon you are aware has for untold centuries been a dead planet,”he continued without rebuking the girl but with a sinister contortionof his under lip. “The scientists tell us that there is no atmospherethere; no plant life; no water; and that men cannot live there even ifthey could go there. I am fixing that all up, working the moon over sothat we will find life quite pleasant when we go there. I am sendingrocket projectiles loaded with water from the Arctic Ocean to themoon. A projectile leaves here loaded with ice; immediately behind itgoes another projectile carrying liquid air, hydrogen and oxygen. Bothprojectiles hit in the same spot on the moon, and the liquid airexplodes and forms a protecting velvet for the ice water when itmelts.”
He paused, and began to laugh, his sides shaking up and downludicrously. Again Joan had to turn her head; again he eyed hersavagely without saying anything for a second. When he spoke there wasa threat in his voice.
“When you are my wife you’re going to have to watch yourrisibilities,” he said gently. “But to proceed. We delay—spread outtoo much for your small minds. Taking cognizance of my projectiles,you see the beginning to the Lake of Vapours. Fearing that there maybe no nitrogen on the moon I am sending frequent projectiles loadedwith saltpeter to unite with the supposed volcanic soils, and makevegetable life possible. In addition I am sending all kinds ofseeds—vegetable seeds, flower seeds, fruit tree seeds, cereal seeds.They go mixed with commercial fertilizer liquid
ized.”
“And you get the saltpeter and fertilizer from——”
The giant did not wait for Epworth to finish his sentence.
“Various and sundry plants in the United States—from Ford, Dupont,etc. The wholesale robberies you were about to speak of are not whatone would call stealing. We need these things to start a greatcivilization on another planet. Your people have them. Unfortunatelywe have not the money to buy all we need; and consequently we areforced to adopt the methods of other nations. We take them.”
“And you think that this crazy idea is going to work?”
“Ha, ha! Do you know who I am?”
Without realizing that she was speaking to the man Joan shook herhead.
“I am Herman Toplinsky, the greatest scientist in the world. I havebeen run out of my home country because I am too smart for the otherscientists. I am being hunted like a wild animal by all thegovernments of the earth. This is why I am hiding in this remote placewith my comrades, and using my airships to get chemicals, supplies,gold, and all the things I need. Am I a bandit? Nay, nay. I am simplya wronged scientist—a smart man without a country. I cannot help theantagonisms of rude and ignorant men.”
Epworth had heard of the man. He was no idle boaster. Before he hadbeen chased out of his home country he had stood at the head ofInternational Science.
The scientist turned his eyes on Joan. She had her fingers pressed onher nose, and could not remove them before he discovered her act. Hesmiled, and sprang nimbly forward.
“What you smell is my chemical laboratory,” he explained. “It is inhere.” He threw open a door. The scent that came from the inner roomcaused the girl to draw back quickly. “I have just removed my handsfrom a vat of NH?.”
It was the smell of rotten eggs accentuated a hundred times, andEpworth now knew that what had been so repulsive to his nostrils sincehe had been in the room was hydrogen mixed with sulphur and nitrogen.