“Well,” I thought to myself, as I returned, “I can afford to rest on
my laurels. There’s not a country in the civilized world where my name
is not known to-day.” My mail was full of requests for interviews,
for magazine articles, for lecture tours. I was a made man, and as I
mused on these things I walked on somewhat more proudly than my wont,
but as I thought over the experiences of the last months, saw in what
an extraordinary fashion fortune had played into my hands, saw how
Tom Haldane had saved my life by his shrewd foresight and scientific
knowledge, and saw, most of all, how I had profited by my dear girl’s
quick wit, I became far more humble. Most of all, I had not yet
accomplished the one thing I set out to do. I had not found the man who
was stopping all war. He still eluded me, and still was carrying on
his dread work. I reached our hotel feeling that I was really a very
ordinary mortal, after all.
While I had been gone, events had been moving swiftly. Some miles out
from The Hague, there was a little inn on the shore among the dunes
over beyond Scheveningen to which we had twice motored down during
the conference. Thoroughly comfortable, a favorite meeting place in
summer for the artist colony about the watering place, it was now
almost wholly deserted, because of the lateness of the season. We felt
it would make ideal headquarters for our work, and soon established
ourselves there. Tom was never more in his element than when assembling
apparatus, or when controlling men. Here was his chance to do both.
Like magic, the tall mast reared its height among the dunes, while
coils, wires, and instruments fell swiftly into place. Acting chiefly
as a burden bearer, I ran to and fro, while Tom and Dorothy, with their
assistants, brought things to completion. As I came in from a final
staying of the aerial, Tom turned to me, wiping the sweat of honest
toil from his face.
“All ready, Jim,” he said. “If you’ll start a message over that wire,
we’ll send it through the ether by means of Denckel’s machine, and
drop it straight on Tokio. Hold on a minute, though. Let me call up
my assistant on the wave-measuring machine, and see if he has heard
anything.”
A rapid conversation over the telephone we had installed, resulted. Tom
turned back to me.
“As yet, I’m thankful to say, nothing happened. ‘The man’ has evidently
been experimenting this morning, and was experimenting this afternoon.
He’s right off Tokio, still. Go ahead.”
I pressed the key and the vibrant discharge rattled from pole to pole.
Over and over again I gave the call. “To the man who has stopped all
war.” Over and over again I hurled my message out across half a world.
For an hour I repeated the call, my eyes and ears waiting for some
response from the sounder at my left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account