COSMIC TRAGEDY By THOMAS S. GARDINER [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Comet March 41. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] The big man with the iron grey hair stared morosely out the quartz window and across the roofs of Greater New York. Far down the canyon streets a few motor cars still ran and over the swinging aerial bridges scattered pedestrians carefully wended their way. Their grotesque figures with the heavy metal helmets that reminded the watching man of the half-mythical sea monsters of the past or divers that used to explore wrecks were far different from the jostling crowds that had crowded the ways only a few short days ago. But that was before the plague--the plague of the whispering death. John Cortland, United Utilities Power magnate, sighed as he turned from the quiet streets below. Somberly he regarded a tiny light beam that came from the mirror of a galvanometer that trembled and danced continually. He mused over the events of the past few days and wondered at their meaning. Like a caged tiger he paced the metal lined room waiting for the word that would spell success or disaster. Five days before it had first appeared. A whispering, a singing and vibrating had manifested itself. It was not local but appeared simultaneously all over the earth. This whispering, as of elfish voices, was not annoying at first; but it changed and alternated from a shrill whine back to the eery murmuring that was first noticed. Young Cavendish at the Black Laboratories had first tracked down the cause of the strange sounds--as to its ultimate origin, that was still veiled in mystery. At the end of the first day people had become nervous, at the end of the second many were on the point of breaking, and then mankind began to go insane. It was too much for their nervous systems and the vibration seemed to affect the inner ear. Suddenly a well ordered planet became a center of bedlam and chaos. Order could not be restored because there was no one to handle affairs. If Dr. Hankins had not discovered that iron would shield a wearer from the vibrations, mankind would have been doomed. As it was only a few of the earth's heavy population had been able to get the protecting helmets, and some had lived in metal lined rooms. This discovery of the shielding effect of iron led to the discovery that an electro-magnetic radiation between infra-red and the short radio waves was acting on the ozone molecules to set them into vibration. To cap it all the ionized Heavyside Layer that protected the earth from the ultra-violet rays from the sun was decomposing also. Thus to the plague of the Whispering Death was added the threat of sun burn--a horrible burn that killed the skin and ultimately the patient.