The Skylark of Space Read online

  THE SKYLARK OF SPACE

  by

  EDWARD ELMER SMITH

  In Collaboration with

  LEE HAWKINS GARBY

  Cover Page]

  +--------------------------------------+ | | | _Perhaps it is a bit unethical and | | unusual for editors to voice their | | opinion of their own wares, but when | | such a story as "The Skylark of | | Space" comes along, we just feel as | | if we must shout from the housetops | | that this is the greatest | | interplanetarian and space flying | | story that has appeared this year. | | Indeed, it probably will rank as one | | of the great space flying stories | | for many years to come. The story is | | chock full, not only of excellent | | science, but woven through it there | | is also that very rare element, love | | and romance. This element in an | | interplanetarian story is often apt | | to be foolish, but it does not seem | | so in this particular story._ | | | | _We know so little about | | intra-atomic forces, that this | | story, improbable as it will appear | | in spots, will read commonplace | | years hence, when we have atomic | | engines, and when we have solved the | | riddle of the atom._ | | | | _You will follow the hair-raising | | explorations and strange ventures | | into far-away worlds with bated | | breath, and you will be fascinated, | | as we were, with the strangeness of | | it all._ | | | +--------------------------------------+

  CHAPTER I

  The Occurrence of the Impossible

  Petrified with astonishment, Richard Seaton stared after the coppersteam-bath upon which he had been electrolyzing his solution of "X," theunknown metal. For as soon as he had removed the beaker the heavy bathhad jumped endwise from under his hand as though it were alive. It hadflown with terrific speed over the table, smashing apparatus and bottlesof chemicals on its way, and was even now disappearing through the openwindow. He seized his prism binoculars and focused them upon the flyingvessel, a speck in the distance. Through the glass he saw that it didnot fall to the ground, but continued on in a straight line, only itsrapidly diminishing size showing the enormous velocity with which it wasmoving. It grew smaller and smaller, and in a few moments disappearedutterly.

  The chemist turned as though in a trance. How was this? The copper bathhe had used for months was gone--gone like a shot, with nothing to makeit go. Nothing, that is, except an electric cell and a few drops of theunknown solution. He looked at the empty space where it had stood, atthe broken glass covering his laboratory table, and again stared out ofthe window.

  He was aroused from his stunned inaction by the entrance of his coloredlaboratory helper, and silently motioned him to clean up the wreckage.

  "What's happened, Doctah?" asked the dusky assistant.

  "Search me, Dan. I wish I knew, myself," responded Seaton, absently,lost in wonder at the incredible phenomenon of which he had just been awitness.

  Ferdinand Scott, a chemist employed in the next room, entered breezily.

  "Hello, Dicky, thought I heard a racket in here," the newcomer remarked.Then he saw the helper busily mopping up the reeking mass of chemicals.

  "Great balls of fire!" he exclaimed. "What've you been celebrating? Hadan explosion? How, what, and why?"

  "I can tell you the 'what,' and part of the 'how'," Seaton repliedthoughtfully, "but as to the 'why,' I am completely in the dark. Here'sall I know about it," and in a few words he related the foregoingincident. Scott's face showed in turn interest, amazement, and pityingalarm. He took Seaton by the arm.

  "Dick, old top, I never knew you to drink or dope, but this stuff surecame out of either a bottle or a needle. Did you see a pink serpentcarrying it away? Take my advice, old son, if you want to stay in UncleSam's service, and lay off the stuff, whatever it is. It's bad enough tocome down here so far gone that you wreck most of your apparatus andlose the rest of it, but to pull a yarn like that is going too far. TheChief will have to ask for your resignation, sure. Why don't you take acouple of days of your leave and straighten up?"

  Seaton paid no attention to him, and Scott returned to his ownlaboratory, shaking his head sadly.

  Seaton, with his mind in a whirl, walked slowly to his desk, picked uphis blackened and battered briar pipe, and sat down to study out what hehad done, or what could possibly have happened, to result in such anunbelievable infraction of all the laws of mechanics and gravitation. Heknew that he was sober and sane, that the thing had actually happened.But why? And how? All his scientific training told him that it wasimpossible. It was unthinkable that an inert mass of metal should flyoff into space without any applied force. Since it had actuallyhappened, there must have been applied an enormous and hitherto unknownforce. What was that force? The reason for this unbelievablemanifestation of energy was certainly somewhere in the solution, theelectrolytic cell, or the steam-bath. Concentrating all the power of hishighly-trained analytical mind upon the problem--deaf and blind toeverything else, as was his wont when deeply interested--he satmotionless, with his forgotten pipe clenched between his teeth. Hourafter hour he sat there, while most of his fellow-chemists finished theday's work and left the building and the room slowly darkened with thecoming of night.

  Finally he jumped up. Crashing his hand down upon the desk, heexclaimed:

  "I have liberated the intra-atomic energy of copper! Copper, 'X,' andelectric current!

  "I'm sure a fool for luck!" he continued as a new thought struck him."Suppose it had been liberated all at once? Probably blown the wholeworld off its hinges. But it wasn't: it was given off slowly and in astraight line. Wonder why? Talk about power! Infinite! Believe me, I'llshow this whole Bureau of Chemistry something to make their eyes stickout, tomorrow. If they won't let me go ahead and develop it, I'llresign, hunt up some more 'X', and do it myself. That bath is on its wayto the moon right now, and there's no reason why I can't follow it.Martin's such a fanatic on exploration, he'll fall all over himself tobuild us any kind of a craft we'll need ... we'll explore the wholesolar system! Great Cat, what a chance! A fool for luck is right!"

  He came to himself with a start. He switched on the lights and saw thatit was ten o'clock. Simultaneously he recalled that he was to have haddinner with his fiancee at her home, their first dinner since theirengagement. Cursing himself for an idiot he hastily left the building,and soon his motorcycle was tearing up Connecticut Avenue toward hissweetheart's home.