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Title: The Crack of Doom
Author: Robert Cromie
Release date: September 8, 2008 [eBook #26563]
Most recently updated: January 4, 2021
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRACK OF DOOM ***
Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
THE CRACK OF DOOM
BY
ROBERT CROMIE
_Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc._
_SECOND EDITION_
LONDON
DIGBY, LONG & CO.
18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1895
PREFACE
The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were
given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance
which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can
be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of
names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes
nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to
consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have
been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the
narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He
does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all
which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind
to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the
proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will
produce.
ROBERT CROMIE.
BELFAST, _May, 1895_.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE! 1
II. A STRANGE EXPERIMENT 10
III. "IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE" 21
IV. GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED 32
V. THE MURDER CLUB 41
VI. A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM 51
VII. GUILTY! 62
VIII. THE WOKING MYSTERY 72
IX. CUI BONO? 81
X. FORCE--A REMEDY 93
XI. MORITURI TE SALUTANT 104
XII. "NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE" 111
XIII. MISS METFORD'S PLAN 123
XIV. ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS 133
XV. "IF NOT TOO LATE" 146
XVI. £5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP 160
XVII. "THIS EARTH SHALL DIE" 174
XVIII. THE FLIGHT 184
XIX. THE CATASTROPHE 197
XX. CONCLUSION 208
THE CRACK OF DOOM
CHAPTER I.
THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!
"The Universe is a mistake!"
Thus spake Herbert Brande, a passenger on the _Majestic_, making for
Queenstown Harbour, one evening early in the past year. Foolish as the
words may seem, they were partly influential in leading to my terrible
association with him, and all that is described in this book.
Brande was standing beside me on the starboard side of the vessel. We
had been discussing a current astronomical essay, as we watched the hazy
blue line of the Irish coast rise on the horizon. This conversation was
interrupted by Brande, who said, impatiently:
"Why tell us of stars distant so far from this insignificant little
world of ours--so insignificant that even its own inhabitants speak
disrespectfully of it--that it would take hundreds of years to telegraph
to some of them, thousands to others, and millions to the rest? Why
limit oneself to a mere million of years for a dramatic illustration,
when there is a star in space distant so far from us that if a telegram
left the earth for it this very night, and maintained for ever its
initial velocity, it would never reach that star?"
He said this without any apparent effort after rhetorical effect; but
the suddenness with which he had presented a very obvious truism in a
fresh light to me made the conception of the vastness of space
absolutely oppressive. In the hope of changing the subject I replied:
"Nothing is gained by dwelling on these scientific speculations. The
mind is only bewildered. The Universe is inexplicable."
"The Universe!" he exclaimed. "That is easily explained. The Universe is
a mistake!"
"The greatest mistake of the century, I suppose," I added, somewhat
annoyed, for I thought Brande was laughing at me.
"Say, of Time, and I agree with you," he replied, careless of my
astonishment.
I did not answer him for some moments.
This man Brande was young in years, but middle-aged in the expression of
his pale, intellectual face, and old--if age be synonymous with
knowledge--in his ideas. His knowledge, indeed, was so exhaustive that
the scientific pleasantries to which he was prone could always be
justified, dialectically at least, by him when he was contradicted.
Those who knew him well did not argue with him. I was always stumbling
into intellectual pitfalls, for I had only known him since the steamer
left New York.
As to myself, there is little to be told. My history prior to my
acquaintance with Brande was commonplace. I was merely an active,
athletic Englishman, Arthur Marcel by name. I had studied medicine, and
was a doctor in all but the degree. This certificate had been dispensed
with owing to an unexpected legacy, on receipt of which I determined to
devote it to the furtherance of my own amusement. In the pursuit of this
object, I had visited many lands and had become familiar with most of
the beaten tracks of travel. I was returning to England after an absence
of three years spent in aimless roaming. My age was thirty-one years,
and my salient characteristic at the time was to hold fast by anything
that interested me, until my humour changed. Brande's conversational
vagaries had amused me on the voyage. His extraordinary comment on the
Universe decided me to cement our shipboard acquaintance before reaching
port.
"That explanation of yours," I said, lighting a fresh cigar, and
returning to a subject which I had so recently tried to shelve, "isn't
it rather vague?"
"For the present it must serve," he answered absently.
To force him into admitting that his phrase was only a thoughtless
exclamation, or induce him to defend it, I said:
"It does not serve any reasonable purpose. It adds nothing to knowledge.
As it stands, it is neither academic nor practical."
Brande looked at me earnestly for a moment, and then said gravely:
"The academic value of the explanation will be shown to you if you will
join a society I have founded; and its practicalne Next |