CHAPTER XVIII
CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED
The absolute failure of Eldridge's hypothesis immediately threw publicconfidence into a profound reaction. Certainty gave place to completedistrust. Rumor gained ground. The exodus increased. Where formerly onlythose who could do so without great sacrifice or inconvenience had lefttown, now people were beginning to cut loose at any cost. Men resignedtheir positions in order to get their families away; others began toarrange their affairs as best they might, as though for a long vacation.As yet panic had not appeared openly in the light of day, but she lurkedin the shadows of men's hearts.
The railroads and steamboats were crowded beyond their capacity. Extratrains followed one another as close together as the block signals wouldallow them to run. Humanity packed the cars. It was like a continualseries of football days. In three of them it was estimated that twohundred thousand people had left Manhattan. It would have been physicallyimpossible for the transportation lines to have carried a thousand more.They had reached their capacity; the spigot was wide open.
Percy Darrow showed Jack the head-lines to this effect.
"Cheerful thought," he suggested. "Suppose the whole four million shouldwant to get out at the same time!"
Eldridge had come back to the wireless office thoroughly bewildered. It isa well-known fact that the exact scientist is the hardest man to fool, butthe most fooled if fooled at all. Witness the extent to which notedscientists have been taken in by faking spiritualist mediums. So withEldridge. His hypothesis had been so carefully worked out that the failureof its logic threw his mind into confusion. Until he could discover theweak link in his chain of reasoning, that confusion must continue.
An hour and a half after the bulletin announcing the failure of the searchhad been posted, Eldridge rushed into the wireless office. The plague ofdarkness had lifted after fifteen minutes' duration.
"Call Monsieur X," he gasped to the day operator. In fifteen minutes, byrapid substitutions of batteries to weaken or strengthen the sendingcurrent, he had redetermined his previous data. Apparently, without theshadow of a doubt, Monsieur X was within the circle.
"He may be at sea," suggested the operator.
But Eldridge shook his head. The circle of the sea had been wellpatrolled, and for days.
"Begin over again," drawled Darrow. "I told you that you were on the wrongtrack."
Eldridge glanced at him.
"I can't say that you've done much!" said he tartly.
"No?" queried Darrow, with one of his slow and exasperating smiles."Perhaps not. But you'd better get to thinking. You won't be able alwaysto take things easy. You may have to hustle before long."
"There has been, I admit," said Eldridge stiffly, repeating in substancethe interview he had already given out, "some flaw in our chain ofreasoning. This it will be necessary to review with the object ofrevision. Every physical manifestation must have some physical anddefinite cause; and this can be found if time enough is bestowed on it.Often the process of elimination is the only method by which the truth canbe determined."
Darrow chuckled.
"Look out the process of elimination doesn't overtake you," he remarked.
Eldridge detailed the same reasoning, at greater length, to the men whohad employed him. These were very impatient. Business was being not merelyimpeded, but destroyed. Their customers had no time for them; theiremployees were in many cases leaving their jobs. They called in all thehelp they could to assist Eldridge's speculations, but in the end they hadto fall back on the scientist as the best on the market. The case was notleft in his hands alone, however. After a meeting they offered a reward toany one discovering and putting to an end the disconcerting phenomena.
"Here's where we make money, Jack, big money," observed Darrow when heread this offer. "It'll be bigger before we get through. You and I canhave the little expedition to Volcano Island."
"Nothing suits me better," said Jack. "Are you sure we'll get it?"
"Sure," said Darrow.
Monsieur X had of course honored the waiting world with a message. Itfollowed the fifteen minutes of darkness:
"TO THE PEOPLE: I have been patient and have stayed my hand in order that you may learn the vanity of your endeavor. Who are ye that ye shall strive to take me? Vanity and foolishness is your portion. Now ye know my power and ye will listen unto my words as to the words of the Master. Ye must hunt down this man McCarthy and deliver him over unto me. If every one of you gives himself to the task, lo! it is quickly done. Bestir yourselves against the wrath to come!"
These events occupied the three days of the ordered exodus. The time wasfurther filled with rumor that ever grew more dire. Gradually business wassuspended entirely. Those who could not or would not go away stood abouttalking matters over, and, as is always the case, matters did not improvein the telling. The only activity in the city was that bent on seeking outthe abiding-place of Monsieur X.
Eldridge had now come to the conclusion that he had perhaps been mistakenin confining his efforts to so small an area. In fact, further experimentsrendered hazy the arbitrary outlines formerly determined for the zone ofdanger. At times Monsieur X answered well within the forty-five-mile mark;at times somewhat beyond the end of the fifty-mile radius. Eldridgeimmediately undertook a series of more delicate experiments by means ofindicators especially designed by him for the occasion. Once more thelittle wireless office became the focus of repertorial attention.
"Our major premises we find still to be correct," announced Eldridge inthe coldly didactic manner characteristic of the man. "This unknownoperator is at a distance; and probably at a height. One indication we didnot take sufficiently into consideration--the fact that this instrumentalone is capable of communication with the instrument of this individual."
Percy Darrow for the first time began to show signs of attention. Hedropped the legs of his chair to the floor and leaned forward.
"That would indicate, gentlemen, that the instrument whose location we aredesirous of determining is of a peculiar nature. What that nature is wehave no means of determining accurately; but in conjunction with the factthat our previous experiments failed to locate Monsieur X, we may adoptthe hypothesis that the wireless apparatus of that individual is not sodelicately responsive as the average. In other words, the zone withinwhich he may be found is in fact wider than we had supposed."
Darrow leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. Eldridgecontinued, explaining the means he had taken to determine more accuratelythe exact location of Monsieur X.
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