The First Globe
As best they could, the governments of earth sought to dissipate the panic, pointing out that few lives had been lost, and urging greater efforts in the production of the air-mines. Already the first great steelite globes were rolling out of the big factories, and were quickly being fitted with the charge of explosives.
It was early on the morning of the 12th that the first air-mine was finished and released. Dr. Howard and I superintended the process, which took place outside one of the great Pittsburgh steelite works that was turning out the globes. Anchored securely to the ground, the globe was slowly exhausted of its air by the giant air-pump that had been equipped for the task.
The pump was disconnected. Then the globe was removed to a large open field near-by and reanchored. We could see clearly that the mighty globe, of incredible lightness, was straining upward with such force against the anchoring chains that held it that it seemed they must part. Dr. Howard reached forth and turned the lever that held the great globe anchored. There was a whizzing sound, a puff of air in our faces, and the great air-mine had vanished, rushing upward at such tremendous speed that it had seemed to disappear before our eyes.
We all gazed up after it, as though to follow its course upward until it floated at last on the surface of earth’s atmosphere. I think that the same thought held us all. This air-mine, this single globe we had released—it seemed such a puny weapon to use against beings who from mighty ships had let down the colossal trawl upon us. Was there actually any hope for us in this method?
Perhaps this doubt was felt by many then, but there was no cessation of the work, which after all held our only chance of striking back at the great space invaders above. By the next day, here and there over earth’s surface, scores of the air-mines were being released, to rush upward. In Germany and the English midlands, in Russia and Pennsylvania and Indiana—everywhere on earth’s surface where the air-mines could be made and assembled—they were being released in groups.
The great industrial leaders of the world had gathered, under Dr. Howard’s heading, to devise plans for the quantity production of the air-mines with the greatest possible speed. Already great factories were being hastily equipped with special machinery, and the explosive factories of the world as well as those producing the repelling devices were working night and day to manufacture the needed materials.
By the 15th, scores of the globes were being released each hour, here and there over the world, and their number was rapidly increasing. Dr. Howard was sleeping but two hours out of twenty-four, it seemed, remaining night and day at the Washington office that had become the center of the world’s activities. He estimated that within a week the air-mines would be pouring forth at the rate of a thousand a day.
“The great danger,” he said, “is that the next attack on us might hit one of the great cities so hard that the inevitable panic will cause a cessation on work on the air-mines.”
“But how long is the work to go on in any case?” I asked. “There must be thousands of globes floating already upon the atmosphere’s surface.”
“There need to be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands,” he said solemnly. “They must be sent forth until these terrible trawlings from above have entirely ceased.”
I shook my head, for I could see that already many, tired of the ceaseless work, were crying out that the scheme was a crazy one. Others had begun to say that whatever space-visitors had been above had already departed. But these statements were swiftly silenced on the next morning, that of the 16th, by the fifth catastrophe.
This fifth blow took place at one of New York’s residential suburbs, Scarsdale, and while it took a toll of life exceeded only by that of the Chicago horror, it was different from the others in one odd respect. The great trawl seemed to descend and gouge along the earth with somewhat smaller speed than in the other instances, and was seen very plainly and even escaped from in time by some people in the vicinity.
It was described as being very like the familiar steam-shovel scoop in shape, but of a glittering metal that all agreed was not native to the earth. The top of it, what supported it, ran up into the mists of the morning sky. They were many shining strands, and very slender for the colossal weight they supported. They gleamed with strange light and it was the opinion of many that if they were of metal they had in some unheard-of way been given supernatural strength.
At Scarsdale perhaps twelve hundred perished in the sweep of the giant scoop, which seemed to make a smaller gash than usual. A few who had heard the trawl crashing toward them had managed to flee from its path in time to escape it.