CHAPTER IV
THE SHADOW OF THE TERROR
By a curious coincidence which, as events proved, was to have someserious consequences, almost at the same moment that Commander Erskinebegan to write his report on the strange vision which he and hisLieutenant had seen, Gilbert Lennard came out of the Observatory whichMr Ratliffe Parmenter had built on the south of the Whernside Hills inYorkshire.
Mr Ratliffe Parmenter had two ambitions in life, one of which he hadfulfilled. This was to pile millions upon millions by any possiblemeans. As he used to say to his associates in his poorer days, "You'vegot to get there somehow, so get there"--and he had "got there." It isnot necessary for the purpose of the present narrative to say how he didit. He had done it, and that is why he bought the Hill of Whernside andabout a thousand acres around it and built an Observatory on the topwith which, to use his own words, he meant to lick Creation by seeingfurther into Creation than anyone else had done, and that is just whathis great reflector had enabled his astronomer to do.
When he had locked the door Lennard looked up to the eastward where themorning star hung flashing like a huge diamond in splendid solitudeagainst the brightening background of the sky. His face was the face ofa man who had seen something that he would not like to describe to anyother man. His features were hard set, and there were lines in his facewhich time might have drawn twenty or thirty years later. His lips madea straight line, and his eyes, although he had hardly slept three hoursa night for as many nights, had a look in them that was not to beaccounted for by ordinary insomnia.
His work was over for the night, and, if he chose, he could go down tothe house three-quarters of a mile away and sleep for the rest of theday, or, at any rate, until lunch time; and yet he looked another longlook at the morning star, thrust his hands down into his trouserspockets and turned up a side path that led through the heather, andspent the rest of the morning walking and thinking--walking slowly, andthinking very quickly.
When he came in to breakfast at nine the next morning, after he had hada shave and a bath, Mr Parmenter said to him:
"Look here, young man, I'm old enough to be your father, and so you'llexcuse me putting it that way; if you're going along like this I reckonI'll have to shut that Observatory down for the time being and take youon a trip to the States to see how they're getting on with theirtelescopes in the Alleghanies and the Rockies, and maybe down South tooin Peru, to that Harvard Observatory above Arequipa on the Misti, as asort of holiday. I asked you to come here to work, not to wear yourselfout. As I've told you before, we've got plenty of men in the States whocan sign their cheques for millions of dollars and can't eat a dinner,to say nothing of a breakfast, and you're too young for that.
"What's the matter? More trouble about that new comet of yours. You'vebeen up all night looking at it, haven't you? Of course it's all rightthat you got hold of it before anybody else, but all the same I don'twant you to be worrying yourself for nothing and get laid up before thetime comes to take the glory of the discovery."
While he was speaking the door of the breakfast-room opened and Auriolecame in. She looked with a just perceptible admiration at the man who,as it seemed to her, was beginning to show a slight stoop in the broadshoulders and a little falling forward of the head which she had firstseen driving through the water to her rescue in the Bay of Connemara.Her eyelids lifted a shade as she looked at him, and she said with ahalf smile:
"Good morning, Mr Lennard; I am afraid you've been sacrificing yourselfa little bit too much to science. You don't seem to have had a sleep forthe last two or three nights. You've been blinding your eyes over thosetangles of figures and equations, parallaxes and cube roots and thatsort of thing. I know something about them because I had some struggleswith them myself at Vassar."
"That's about it, Auriole," said her father. "Just what I've beensaying; and I hope our friend is not going on with this kind of businesstoo long. Now, really, Mr Lennard, you know you must not, and that's allthere is to it."
"Oh, no, I don't think you need be frightened of anything of that sort,"said Lennard, who had considerably brightened up as Auriole entered theroom; "perhaps I may have been going a little too long without sleep;but, you see, a man who has the great luck to discover a new comet issomething like one of the old navigators who discovered new islands andcontinents. Of course you remember the story of Columbus. When hethought he was going to find what is now the country which has had thehonour--"
"I know you're going to say something nice, Mr Lennard," interruptedAuriole, "but breakfast is ready; here it comes. If you take my adviceyou will have your coffee and something to eat and tell us the rest ofit while you're getting something that will do you good. What do youthink, Poppa?"
"Hard sense, Auriole, hard sense. Your mother used to talk just likethat, and I reckon you've got it from her. Well now, here's the food,let's begin. I've got a hunger on me that I'd have wanted five dollarsto stop at the time when I couldn't buy a breakfast."
They sat down, Miss Auriole at the head of the table and her father andLennard facing each other, and for the next few minutes there was asemi-silence which was very well employed in the commencement of one ofthe most important functions of the human day.
When Mr Parmenter had got through his first cup of coffee, his twopoached eggs on toast, and was beginning on the fish, he looked acrossthe table and said:
"Well now, Mr Lennard, I guess you're feeling a bit better, as I do, andso, maybe, you can tell us something new about comets."
"I certainly am feeling better," said Lennard with a glance at Auriole,"but, you see, I've got into a state of mind which is not unlike thephysical state of the Red Indian who starves for a few days and thentakes his meals, I mean the arrears of meals, all at once. When I havehad a good long sleep, as I am going to have until to-night, I might--infact, I hope I shall be able to tell you something definite about thequestion of the comet."
"What--the question?" echoed Mr Parmenter. "About the comet? I didn'tunderstand that there was any question. You have discovered it, haven'tyou?"
"I have made a certain discovery, Mr Parmenter," said Lennard, with agravity which made Auriole raise her eyelids quickly, "but whether Ihave found a comet so far unknown to astronomy or not, is quite anothermatter. Thanks to that splendid instrument of yours, I have found asomething in a part of the heavens where no comet, not even a star, haseven been seen yet, and, speaking in all seriousness, I may say thatthis discovery contradicts all calculations as to the orbits andvelocities of any known comet. That is what I have been thinking aboutall night."
"What?" said Auriole, looking up again. "Really something quiteunknown?"
"Unknown except to the three people sitting at this table, unlessanother miracle has happened--I mean such a one as happened in the caseof the discovery of Neptune which, as of course you know, Adams atCambridge and Le Verrier at Paris--"
"Yes, yes," said Auriole, "two men who didn't know each other; bothlooked for something that couldn't be seen, and found it. If you've doneanything like that, Mr Lennard, I reckon Poppa will have good cause tobe proud of his reflector--"
"And of the man behind it," added her father. "A telescope's like a gun;no use without a good man behind it. Well, if that's so, Mr Lennard,this discovery of yours ought to shake the world up a bit."
"From what I have seen so far," replied Lennard, "I have not theslightest doubt that it will."
"And when may I see this wonderful discovery of yours, Mr Lennard," saidAuriole, "this something which is going to be so important, thissomething that no one else's eyes have seen except yours. Really, youknow, you've made me quite longing to get a sight of this stranger fromthe outer wilderness of space."
"If the night is clear enough, I may hope to be able to introduce you tothe new celestial visitor about a quarter-past eleven to-night, or to bequite accurate eleven hours, sixteen minutes and thirty-nine secondsp.m."
"I think that's good enough, Auriole," said her father. "If the heavensar
e only kind enough, we'll go up to the observatory and, as Mr Lennardsays, see something that no one else has ever seen."
"And then," laughed Auriole, "I suppose you will have achieved thesecond ambition of your life. You have already piled up a bigger heap ofdollars than anybody else in the world, and by midnight you will haveseen farther into Creation than anybody else. But you will let me havethe first look, won't you?"
"Why, certainly," he replied. "As soon as Mr Lennard has got thetelescope fixed, you go first, and I reckon that won't take very long."
"No," replied Lennard, "I've worked out the position for to-night, andit's only a matter of winding up the clockwork and setting thetelescope. And now," he continued, rising, "if you will allow me, I willsay--well, I was going to say good-night, but of course it'sgood-morning--I'm going to bed."
"Will you come down to lunch, or shall I have some sent up to you?"said Auriole.
"No, thanks. I don't think there will be any need to trouble you aboutthat. When I once get to sleep, I hope I shall forget all thingsearthly, and heavenly too for the matter of that, until about sixo'clock, and if you will have me called then, I will be ready fordinner."
"Certainly," replied Auriole, "and I hope you will sleep as well as youdeserve to do, after all these nights of watching."
He did sleep. He slept the sleep of a man physically and mentally tired,in spite of the load of unspeakable anxiety which was weighing upon hismind. For during his last night's work, he had learnt what no other manin the world knew. He had learnt that, unless a miracle happened, orsome almost superhuman feat of ingenuity and daring was accomplished,that day thirteen months hence would see the annihilation of everyliving thing on earth, and the planet Terra converted into a dark andlifeless orb, a wilderness drifting through space, the blackened anddesolated sepulchre of the countless millions of living beings which nowinhabited it.
The World Peril of 1910 Page 5