A Columbus of Space | Page 4

it on and off, and controlling it as I wish. Mark you, this power
comes right out of the heart of what we call matter; the world is chock
full of it. We have known that it was there at least ever since
radioactivity was discovered, but it looked as though human
intelligence would never be able to set it free from its prison.

Nevertheless I have not only set it free, but I am able to control it as
perfectly as if it were steam from a boiler, or an electric current from a
dynamo."
Jack, who was as unscientific a person as ever lived, yawned, and
Edmund noticed it. But he showed no irritation, merely smiling, and
saying, with a wink at me and Henry:
"Even this seems to be rather too deep, so perhaps I had better show
you, instead of telling you, what I mean. Excuse me a moment."
He stepped out of the door, and we remained seated. We heard a noise
outside like the opening of a barn door, and immediately Edmund
reappeared and closed the door of the chamber in which we were. We
watched him with growing curiosity. With a singular smile he pressed a
knob on the wall, and instantly we felt that the chamber was rising in
the air. It rocked a little like a boat in wavy water. We were startled, of
course, but not alarmed.
"Hello!" exclaimed Jack. "What kind of a balloon is this?"
"It's something more than a balloon," was Edmund's reply, and as he
spoke he touched another knob, and we felt the car, as I must now call
it, come to rest. Then Edmund opened a shutter at one side, and we all
sprang up to look out. Below us we saw roofs and the tops of two trees
standing at the side of the street.
"We're about a hundred feet up," said Edmund quietly. "What do you
think of it now?"
"Wonderful! wonderful!" we exclaimed in a breath. And I continued:
"And do you say that it is inter-atomic energy that does this?"
"Nothing else in the world," returned Edmund.
But bantering Jack must have his quip:
"By the way, Edmund," he demanded, "what was it that Archimedes

dreamed? But no matter; you've knocked him silly. Now, what are you
going to do with your atomic balloon?"
Edmund's eyes flashed:
"You'll see in a minute."
The scene out of the window was beautiful, and for a moment we all
remained watching it. The city lights were nearly all below our level,
and away off over the New Jersey horizon I noticed the planet Venus,
near to setting, but as brilliant as a diamond. I am fond of star-gazing,
and I called Edmund's attention to the planet as he happened to be
standing next to me.
"Lovely, isn't she?" he said with enthusiasm. "The finest world in the
solar system, and what a strange thing that she should have one side
always day and the other always night."
I was surprised by his exhibition of astronomic lore, for I had never
known that he had given any attention to the subject, but a minute later
the incident was forgotten as Edmund suddenly pushed us back from
the window and closed the shutter.
"Going down again so soon?" asked Jack.
Edmund smiled. "Going," he said simply, and put his hand to one of the
knobs. Immediately we felt ourselves moving very slowly.
"That's right, Edmund," put in Jack again, "let us down easy; I don't
like bumps."
We expected at each instant to feel the car touch the cradle in which it
had evidently rested, but never were three mortals so mistaken. What
really did happen can better be described in the words of Will Church,
who, you will remember, had disappeared at the beginning of our
singular adventure. I got the account from him long afterwards. He had
written it out carefully and put it away in a safe, as a sort of historic
document. Here is Church's narrative, omitting the introduction, which

read like a law paper:
"When we went over from the club to Stonewall's house, I dropped
behind the others, because the four of them took up the whole width of
the sidewalk. Stonewall was talking to them, and my attention was
attracted by something uncommon in his manner. He had an
indefinable carriage of the head which suggested to me the suspicion
that everything was not just as it should be. I don't mean that I thought
him crazy, or anything of that kind, but I felt that he had some scheme
in his mind to fool us.
"I bitterly repented, after things turned out as they did, that I had not
whispered a word to the others. But that would have been