you’ll get it all-in fact, being on the inside, you’ll be able to do a lot of reading between
the lines that no one else will. Also, what I am going to do next will settle the doubt that is
still in your mind as to whether I’ve really got the stuff.”
The projection vanished, and in a few minutes every radio receiving set throughout the
world burst into stentorian voice. DuQuesne was broadcasting simultaneously upon every
channel from five meters to five thousand, using a wave of such tremendous power that
even two-million-watt stations were smothered at the very bases of their own
transmitting towers.
“People of Earth, attention!” the speakers blared. “I am speaking for the World Steel
Corporation. From this time on the governments of all nations of the Earth will be advised
and guided by the World Steel Corporation. For a long time I have sought some method
of doing away with the stupidities of the present national governments. I have studied the
possibilities of doing away with war and its attendant horrors. I have considered all
feasible methods of correcting your present economic system, under which you have had
constantly recurring cycles of boom and panic.
“Most of you have thought for years that something should be done about all these
things. You are not only unorganized, however; you are and always have been racially
distrustful and hence easily exploited by every self-seeking demagogue who has arisen
to proclaim the dawn of a new day. Thus you have been able to do nothing to improve
world conditions.
“It was not difficult to solve the problem of the welfare of mankind. It was quite another
matter, however, to find a way of enforcing that solution. At last I have found it. I have
developed a power sufficiently great to compel worldwide disarmament and to
inaugurate productive employment of all men now bearing arms, as well as all persons
now unemployed, at shorter hours and larger wages than any heretofore known. I have
also developed means whereby I can trace with absolute certainty the perpetrators of
any known crime, past or present; and I have both the power and the will to deal
summarily with habitual criminals.
“The revolution which I am accomplishing will harm no one except parasites upon the
body politic. National boundaries and customs shall remain as they now are. Govern-
ments will be overruled only when and as they impede the progress of civilization. War,
however, will not be tolerated. I shall prevent it, not by killing the soldiers who would do
the actual fighting, but by putting out of existence every person who attempts to foment
strife. Those schemers I shall kill without mercy, long before their plans shall have ma-
tured.
“Trade shall be encouraged, and industry. Prosperity shall be world-wide and continuous,
because of the high level of employment and remuneration: I do not ask you to believe all
this, I am merely telling you. Wait and see-it will come true in less than thirty days.
“I shall now demonstrate my power by rendering the navy of the United States helpless,
without taking a single life.
I am now poised low over the city of Washington. I invite the Seventieth Bombing
Squadron, which I see has already taken to the air, to drop their heaviest bombs upon
me. I shall move out over the Potomac, so that the fragments will do no damage, and I
shall not retaliate. I could wipe out that squadron without effort, but I have no desire to
destroy brave men who are only obeying blindly the dictates of an outworn system.”
The space ship, which had extended across the city from Chevy Chase to Anacostia,
moved out over the river, followed by the relatively tiny bombers. After a time the entire
countryside was shaken by the detonations of the world’s heaviest projectiles, but
DuQuesne’s cold, clear voice went on:
“The bombers have done their best, but they have not even marred the outer plating of
my ship. I will now show you what I can do if I should decide to do it. There is an
obsolete battleship anchored off the Cape, which was to have been sunk by naval
gunfire. I direct a force upon it-it is gone; volatilized almost instantly.
“I am now over Sandy Hook, I am not destroying the installations, as I cannot do so
without killing men. Therefore I am simply uprooting them and am depositing them gently
upon the mud fiats of the Mississippi River, at St. Louis, Missouri. Now I am sending out
a force to each armed vessel of the United States navy, wheresoever situated upon the
face of the globe.
“At such speed as is compatible with the safety of the personnel, I am transporting those
vessels through the air toward Salt Lake City, Utah. Tomorrow morning every unit of the
American navy will float in Great Salt Lake. If you do not believe that I am doing this,
read in your own newspaper tomorrow that I have done it.
“Tomorrow I shall treat similarly the navies of Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the
other maritime nations. I shall deal then with the military forces and their fortifications.
“I have already taken steps to abate the nuisance of certain widely known criminals and
racketeers who have been conducting, quite openly and flagrantly, a reign of terror for
profit. Seven of those men have already died, and ten more are to die tonight. Your
homes shall be safe from the kidnaper; your businesses shall be safe from the
extortioner and his skulking aid, the dynamiter.
“In conclusion, I tell you that the often-promised new era is here; not in words, but in
actuality. Good-by until tomorrow.”
DuQuesne flashed his projection down into Brookings’ office. “Well, Brookings, that’s the
start. You understand now what I am going to do, and you know that I can do it.”
“Yes. You undoubtedly have immense power, and you have taken exactly the right
course to give us the support of a great number of people who would ordinarily be
bitterly opposed to anything we do. But that talk of wiping out gangsters and racketeers
sounded funny, coming from you.”
“Why should it? We are now beyond that stage. And, while public opinion is not
absolutely necessary to our success it is always a potent force. No program of
despotism, however benevolent, can expect to be welcomed unanimously; but the course
I have outlined will at least divide the opposition.”
DuQuesne cut off his forces and sat back at the controls, relaxed, his black eyes staring
into infinity. Earth was his, to do with as he wished; and he would soon have it so armed
that he could hold it against the universe. Master of Earth! His highest ambition had been
attained-or had it? The world, after all, was small-merely a mote in space. Why not be
master of the entire galaxy? There was Norlamin to be considered, of course . . .
Norlamin!
Norlamin would not like the idea and would have to be pacified.
As soon as he got the Earth straightened out he would have to see what could be done
about Norlamin.
10 CAPTURED!
“Dick!” Dorothy shrieked, flashing to Seaton’s side; and, abandoning his fruitless
speculations, he turned to confront two indescribable, yet vaguely recognizable, entities
who had floated effortlessly into the control room of the Skylark. Large they were, and
black-a dull, lusterless black-and each was possessed of four huge, bright
lenses which apparently were eyes. “Dick! What are they, anyway?”
“Life, probably; the intelligent, four-dimensional life that Mart fully expected to find here,”
Seaton answered. “I’ll see if I can’t send them a thought.”
Staring directly into those expressionless lenses the man sent out wave after wave of
friendly thought, without result or reaction. He then turned on the power of the
mechanical educator and donned a headset, extending another toward one of the weird
visitors and indicating as clearly as he could by signs that it was to be placed back of the
outlandish eyes. Nothing happened, however, and Seaton snatched off the useless
phones.
“Might have known they wouldn’t work!” he snorted. “Electricity) Too slow-and those
tubes probably won’t be hot in less than ten years of this hypertime, besides. Probably
wouldn’t have been any good, anyway-their minds would of course be four-dimensional,
and ours most distinctly are not. There may be some point-or rather, plane-of contact
between their minds and ours, but I doubt it. They don’t act warlike, though; we’ll simply
watch them a while and see what they do.”
But if, as Seaton had said, the intruders did not seem inimical, neither were they friendly.
If any emotion at all affected them, it was apparently nothing more nor less than
curiosity. They floated about, gliding here and there, their great eyes now close to this
article, now that; until at last they floated past the arenak wall of the spherical space ship