Islands in the Air | Page 3

to caution him
for fear some servant might overhear.
The night was far advanced when at last he finished and rose to retire.
His face shone with ardent hope as he bade me good night and
ascended the stairs. I stared after him until he passed from view, and
then too much upset by his astounding revelations to sleep I went out to
take a turn or two about the lawn in an effort to get the thing
thoroughly analyzed before committing myself to sponsor a scheme
that seemed to be the most impossible thing ever conceived by the
mind of man.

As I went down the porch steps I fancied I heard a slight scraping noise
from the direction of my study window. I looked that way and for a
moment thought I saw a vague shadowy form emerge from the deeper
shadows and disappear over the porch railing. But as the sky was
overcast and the gloom deep in that particular quarter I dismissed the
notion.
For more than an hour I paced up and down the drives and across the
lawn thinking over the professor's words. The result of it all was that I
finally concluded to back him financially.
CHAPTER II
The Secret of Walnut Ridge
WE HAD no difficulty purchasing the desired tract on Walnut Ridge.
We enclosed it with a high, woven wire fence topped by five strands of
barbed wire. Our workmen were selected carefully, housed to keep
their mouths shut. As secretly as possible the material of diverse sorts
was collected on the ridge and the actual work of construction began.
The few reporters and other curious humans that found their way out
through the wilderness to the plant were sent on the wrong trail by the
report that we were about to test out special iron mining machinery and
make borings for other minerals.
While our electricians under the able direction of a little red-headed
Scotchman named McCann were familiar with all the workings of the
intricate machinery, motors, transformers and so on, no one understood
the complete working principle save the professor himself, although
McCann, being canny and deep, I credited with understanding more
than he let on. Certain it is that the professor was in love with him and
trusted him implicitly. The professor was everywhere, tireless, secretive,
and often provoking. Sometimes he worked far into the night when all
others had sought their beds.
As for myself I wandered about from one section to another in a maze
of doubt and wonder. The whole thing was too deep for me, and I
thought so much on the subject that it began to rob me of my sleep.

Besides, the Professor's taciturnity finally began to irritate me.
Although I was furnishing all the money he did not offer to divulge the
inner secrets of his scheme. My wonder was intensified as the sky
islands, two in number and located one near each end of the enclosure,
began to take form. These islands were fashioned out of structural steel,
were square in form and about one hundred yards from rim to rim.
Although their superstructure was built of light-weight materials, each
must have weighed many thousands of tons burdened as they were with
machinery of many kinds--oscillators, condensers, motors and diverse
other machines whose names and offices were known only to the
Professor.
Besides the machines on the islands, others were sheltered by small
buildings on the ground. At three corners of each island were short
mastheads with powerful lights and at the fourth rose a taller masthead
bearing a revolving airplane beacon. I knew that the Professor proposed
to raise this great mass into the air by wireless control, to suspend it
there and raise and lower it at will. Having had the theory dinned into
my ears for many days I naturally absorbed some of the faith of its
inventor, but as the work progressed I began to have misgivings and to
fear that, after all, his mind was unbalanced.
Of course the public was not admitted to the grounds. I began to
suspect that many doubted the iron machinery story, for several
reporters and photographers finally came to visit us and were turned
away with a sharp rebuke.
One of our first tasks consisted of clearing a landing field, after which
Greta always brought the Professor and me over in her plane--a
remarkable machine in its way. Although she did not understand these
air islands any more than I, she criticized the Professor for evolving
them and was sceptical of their success.
We heard and saw little of Van Beck, but Greta saw him often--as I
afterward learned. Then one day she swooped down suddenly out of the
sky, climbed from the cabin of the plane and was followed