TED led Roger and the professor through a side door, and out onto the roof, which was illuminated by the silvery glory of the moon. A watchman challenged them, then saluted respectfully as he recognized his employer.
As they passed the hangars of Ted’s fleet of electroplanes, more watchmen challenged and saluted.
Beyond this, they came to a square shed of steel, the heavy metal door of which Ted unlocked with a key taken from his pocket. As his two companions entered he closed the door after them, then pressed a light switch.
“Here is my secret,” he said. “Isn’t she a little beauty?”
“I’ll say she is!” exclaimed Roger, looking admiringly at a craft of silver gray metal about sixteen feet in length, gracefully shaped, and decked over like an Esquimauan kayak, but with a centrally located turret which projected above and below the hull. This turret was of glass braced with the same silver-gray metal which formed the hull, and within it could be seen a bewildering array of buttons and levers which fronted a revolving upholstered seat. Projecting from the upper half of the turret, pointing fore, aft, and to each side, were four tubes, each of which ended in a glass lens. The lower turret was similarly equipped. The hull itself was provided with four searchlights, set to sweep in all directions.
Ted opened a heavily-gasketed door in the side of the upper turret, and said:
“Look her over if you want to, while I put on my driving suit.”
“You’ve been keeping something from me, Ted,” said Roger reproachfully while he and the professor admired the snug interior of the craft.
The young inventor laughed, as he opened a drawer and produced a costume and helmet greatly resembling those worn by deep sea divers.
“Wanted to surprise you,” he said, stepping into the one-piece suit and screwing down the clamps which closed the front. “Besides, you had too much on your mind as it was.”
“But what is the purpose of the thing?” asked the professor, still peering into the interior. “You don’t mean to tell me this craft will fly without planes, rudder or propeller.”
“I think so,” replied Ted, “although if it does, this will be its maiden flight.”
“But how?” persisted the professor.
“Atomotor,” said Ted, shortly, attaching his helmet to an affair which slightly resembled a knapsack. “It will fly in the same manner as my projectile flew to the moon, but more slowly, because I don’t dare give it the terrific start imparted to my projectile.”
“Hardly,” smiled Roger. “It would be burned to a cinder. How far are you going tonight?”
“Don’t know exactly;” replied Ted, “but if luck is with me I hope to land on the moon before the middle of this week.”
“What!” gasped Roger. “You expect to go to the moon alone and unarmed?”
“Alone,” grinned Ted, “but not unarmed.” He had donned the helmet and opened a glass slide in front for conversational purposes. After adjusting the straps of the thing which resembled a knapsack, he took a belt from the drawer and buckled it about his waist. Attached to the belt were two holsters from which pistol-like handles projected.
“Do you expect to defend yourself against super-intelligences as seem to exist on the moon, with a couple of pistols?” asked the professor.
“Hardly,” replied Ted. “The things you think are pistols are not pistols at all, but pistol degravitors. They operate on the same principle as the eight degravitors on my craft, but on a smaller scale.”
“You mean those eight tubes sticking out of the turret?” asked Roger.
“Exactly,” replied Ted.
“What deadly substance do they shoot?”
“They don’t shoot,” Ted answered with a smile. “They radiate—and when their rays strike matter it disintegrates.”
“But how—”
“I can only take a minute to explain, as time is pressing,” replied Ted, “but I’ll give you a demonstration very shortly. All matter is composed of atoms which are, in turn, composed of protons and electrons, always in motion, the latter whirling around the former as the planets whirl around the sun. The force, therefore, which holds them in their orbits is analogous to the force of gravity, hence I have applied the word until a better one can be found. When I press the firing button of the degravitor, it immediately releases two sets of invisible rays, cathode and anode, both of which when properly pointed, strike the same object at the same time, but at slightly different angles. The positively charged protons are instantly torn from their atoms by the cathode rays, while the negatively charged electrons are taken up by the anode rays. As the two types of rays diverge, they are torn apart, and the matter which they form immediately disintegrates and disappears.”
“Remarkable!” exclaimed the professor.
“Good head!” said Roger. “But how on earth did you manage to make all these things without my knowing it?”
“Easily,” replied Ted. “I had the parts made separately in the shop and assembled them here, myself. The hull is supposed to be the fuselage of a new type of electroplane, to which the wings have not yet been attached. The atomotor is assumed to be a model. I fitted it into the hull, myself. As for the degravitors, I had the parts made, assembled them, and fitted the larger ones into the turret, working nights in this room.
“I might add that I have put through an order for ten thousand of the small and a hundred thousand of the large degravitors. Directions for assembling and firing them are in the safe, and you, Roger, will see to it that our soldiers and combat planes are equipped with them as soon as possible.
“But enough of explanations. I must go. If I do not return, you, Roger, will know where to find all of my plans, including those for the degravitors. Use them, and arrange for the defense as best you can, without me.”
He entered the turret and switched on a tiny, inner light.
“I have your valuable translations, professor,” said Ted, “and hope that I may be able to use them to advantage. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, and good luck,” echoed both men as he closed the front of his helmet and slammed and fastened the door of the turret.
They watched him as he slowly elevated the upper forward degravitor. When he pressed the button no visible rays shot forth, but in the metal roof toward which it was aimed there suddenly appeared a clean cut hole which was rapidly widened by circumscribing it with the degravitor rays. The metal did not glow as if burned away, but simply disappeared with a quick, scintillating flash wherever the rays touched it.
When the hole had been enlarged sufficiently, Ted waved a last adieu. Then his craft rose gracefully, hung for a moment at a point about a thousand feet above the roof, and disappeared with a burst of terrific speed, traveling in a direction which might be reckoned about 80 degrees to the east of the moon in the plane of the ecliptic.