The Second Deluge Read online

  THE SECOND DELUGE

  By

  Garrett P. Serviss

  1912

  "THEY MEANT TO CARRY THE ARK WITH A RUSH" [Page 106] ]

  FOREWORD

  What is here set down is the fruit of long and careful research amongdisjointed records left by survivors of the terrible events described.The writer wishes frankly to say that, in some instances, he hasfollowed the course which all historians are compelled to take by usinghis imagination to round out the picture. But he is able conscientiouslyto declare that in the substance of his narrative, as well as in everydetail which is specifically described, he has followed faithfully theaccounts of eyewitnesses, or of those who were in a position to know thetruth of what they related.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I. COSMO VERSAL

  II. MOCKING AT FATE

  III. THE FIRST DROPS OF THE DELUGE

  IV. THE WORLD SWEPT WITH TERROR

  V. THE THIRD SIGN

  VI. SELECTING THE FLOWER OF MANKIND

  VII. THE WATERS BEGIN TO RISE

  VIII. STORMING THE ARK

  IX. THE COMPANY OF THE REPRIEVED

  X. THE LAST DAY OF NEW YORK

  XI. "A BILLION FOR A SHARE"

  XII. THE SUBMERGENCE OF THE OLD WORLD

  XIII. STRANGE FREAKS OF THE NEBULA

  XIV. THE ESCAPE OF THE PRESIDENT

  XV. PROFESSOR PLUDDER'S DEVICE

  XVI. MUTINY IN THE ARK

  XVII. THE _JULES VERNE_

  XVIII. NAVIGATING OVER DROWNED EUROPE

  XIX. TO PARIS UNDER THE SEA

  XX. THE ADVENTURES IN COLORADO

  XXI. "THE FATHER OF HORROR"

  XXII. THE TERRIBLE NUCLEUS ARRIVES

  XXIII. ROBBING THE CROWN OF THE WORLD

  XXIV. THE FRENCHMAN'S NEW SCHEME

  XXV. NEW YORK IN HER OCEAN TOMB

  XXVI. NEW AMERICA

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "THEY MEANT TO CARRY THE ARK WITH A RUSH"

  "THE GREAT BATTLESHIP ... CRASHED, PROW ON, INTO THE STEEL-RIBBED WALLS"

  "IT IS A PROPHECY OF THE SECOND DELUGE"

  "AND THEN THEY FLOATED NEAR THE MONUMENTAL TOMB OF GENERAL GRANT"

  THE SECOND DELUGE

  CHAPTER I

  COSMO VERSAL

  An undersized, lean, wizen-faced man, with an immense bald head, asround and smooth and shining as a giant soap-bubble, and a pair of beadyblack eyes, set close together, so that he resembled a gnome of amazingbrain capacity and prodigious power of concentration, sat bent over awriting desk with a huge sheet of cardboard before him, on which he wasswiftly drawing geometrical and trigonometrical figures. Compasses,T-squares, rulers, protractors, and ellipsographs obeyed the touch ofhis fingers as if inspired with life.

  The room around him was a jungle of terrestrial and celestial globes,chemists' retorts, tubes, pipes, and all the indescribable apparatusthat modern science has invented, and which, to the uninitiated, seemsas incomprehensible as the ancient paraphernalia of alchemists andastrologers. The walls were lined with book shelves, and adorned alongthe upper portions with the most extraordinary photographs and drawings.Even the ceiling was covered with charts, some representing the sky,while many others were geological and topographical pictures of the faceof the earth.

  Beside the drawing-board lay a pad of paper, and occasionally the littleman nervously turned to this, and, grasping a long pencil, madeelaborate calculations, covering the paper with a sprinkling ofmathematical symbols that looked like magnified animalcula. While heworked, under a high light from a single window placed well up near theceiling, his forehead contracted into a hundred wrinkles, his cheeksbecame feverous, his piercing eyes glowed with inner fire, and drops ofperspiration ran down in front of his ears. One would have thought thathe was laboring to save his very soul and had but a few seconds ofrespite left.

  Presently he threw down the pencil, and with astonishing agility lethimself rapidly, but carefully, off the stool on which he had beensitting, keeping the palms of his hands on the seat beside his hipsuntil he felt his feet touch the floor. Then he darted at a book-shelf,pulled down a ponderous tome, flapped it open in a clear space on thefloor, and dropped on his knees to consult it.

  After turning a leaf or two he found what he was after, read down thepage, keeping a finger on the lines, and, having finished his reading,jumped to his feet and hurried back to the stool, on which he mounted soquickly that it was impossible to see how he managed it--without anupset. Instantly he made a new diagram, and then fell to figuringfuriously on the pad, making his pencil gyrate so fast that its upperend vibrated like the wing of a dragon-fly.

  At last he threw down the pencil, and, encircling his knees with hisclasped arms, sank in a heap on the stool. The lids dropped over hisshining eyes, and he became buried in thought.

  When he reopened his eyes and unbent his brows, his gaze happened to bedirected toward a row of curious big photographs which ran like apictured frieze round the upper side of the wall of the room. A casualobserver might have thought that the little man had been amusing himselfby photographing the explosions of fireworks on a Fourth of July night;but it was evident by his expression that these singular pictures had noconnection with civic pyrotechnics, but must represent something ofincomparably greater importance, and, in fact, of stupendous import.

  The little man's face took on a rapt look, in which wonder and fearseemed to be blended. With a sweep of his hand he included the wholeseries of photographs in a comprehensive glance, and then, settling hisgaze upon a particularly bizarre object in the center, he began to speakaloud, although there was nobody to listen to him.

  "My God!" he said. "That's it! That Lick photograph of the Lord RosseNebula is its very image, except that there's no electric fire in it.The same great whirl of outer spirals, and then comes the awful centralmass--and we're going to plunge straight into it. Then quintillions oftons of water will condense on the earth and cover it like a universalcloudburst. And then good-by to the human race--unless--unless--I, CosmoVersal, inspired by science, can save a remnant to repeople the planetafter the catastrophe."

  Again, for a moment, he closed his eyes, and puckered his hemisphericalbrow, while, with drawn-up knees, he seemed perilously balanced on thehigh stool. Several times he slowly shook his head, like a dreaming owl,and when his eyes reopened their fire was gone, and a reflective filmcovered them. He began to speak, more deliberately than before, and in amusing tone:

  "What can I do? I don't believe there is a mountain on the face of theglobe lofty enough to lift its head above that flood. Hum, hum! It's nouse thinking about mountains! The flood will be six miles deep--sixmiles from the present sea-level; my last calculation proves it beyondall question. And that's only a minimum--it may be miles deeper, for nomortal man can tell exactly what'll happen when the earth plunges into anebula.

  "We'll have to float; that's the thing. I'll have to build an ark. I'llbe a second Noah. But I'll advise the whole world to build arks.

  "Millions might save themselves that way, for the flood is not going tolast forever. We'll get through the nebula in a few months, and then thewaters will gradually recede, and the high lands will emerge again.It'll be an awful long time, though; I doubt if the earth will ever bejust as it was before. There won't be much room, except for fish--butthere won't be many inhabitants for what dry land there is."

  Once more he fell into silent meditation, and while he mused there camea knock at the door. The little man started up on his seat, alert as asquirrel, and turned his eyes over his shoulder, listening intently. Theknock was repeated--three quick sharp raps. Evidently he at oncerecognized them.

  "All right," he called out, and, lettin
g himself down, ran swiftly tothe door and opened it.

  A tall, thin man, with bushy black hair, heavy eyebrows, a high, narrowforehead, and a wide, clean shaven mouth, wearing a solemn kind ofsmile, entered and grasped the little man by both hands.

  "Cosmo," he said, without wasting any time on preliminaries, "have youworked it out?"

  "I have just finished."

  "And you find the worst?"

  "Yes, worse than I ever dreamed it would be. The waters will be sixmiles deep."

  "Phew!" exclaimed the other, his smile fading. "That is indeed serious.And when does it begin?"

  "Inside of a year. We're within three hundred million miles of thewatery nebula now, and you know that the earth travels more than thatdistance in twelve months."

  "Have you seen it?"

  "How could I see it--haven't I told you it is invisible? If it could beseen all these stupid astronomers would have spotted it long ago. ButI'll tell you what I have seen."

  Cosmo Versal's voice sank into a whisper, and he shuddered slightly ashe went on:

  "Only last night I was sweeping the sky with the telescope when Inoticed, in Hercules and Lyra, and all that part of the heavens, adimming of some of the fainter stars. It was like the shadow of theshroud of a ghost. Nobody else would have noticed it, and I wouldn't ifI had not been looking for it. It's knowledge that clarifies the eyesand breeds knowledge, Joseph Smith. It was not truly visible, and yet Icould see that it was there. I tried to make out the shape of thething--but it was too indefinite. But I know very well what it is. Seehere"--he suddenly broke off--"Look at that photograph." (He waspointing at the Lord Rosse Nebula on the wall). "It's like that, onlyit's coming edgewise toward us. We may miss some of the outer spirals,but we're going smash into the center."

  With fallen jaw, and black brows contracted, Joseph Smith stared at thephotograph.

  "It doesn't shine like that," he said at last.

  The little man snorted contemptuously.

  "What have I told you about its invisibility?" he demanded.

  "But how, then, do you know that it is of a watery nature?"

  Cosmo Versal threw up his hands and waved them in an agony ofimpatience. He climbed upon his stool to get nearer the level of theother's eyes, and fixing him with his gaze, exclaimed:

  "You know very well how I know it. I know it because I have demonstratedwith my new spectroscope, which analyzes extra-visual rays, that allthose dark nebulae that were photographed in the Milky Way years ago arecomposed of watery vapor. They are far off, on the limits of theuniverse. This one is one right at hand. It's a little one compared withthem--but it's enough, yes, it's enough! You know that more than twoyears ago I began to correspond with astronomers all over the worldabout this thing, and not one of them would listen to me. Well, they'lllisten when it's too late perhaps.

  "They'll listen when the flood-gates are opened and the inundationbegins. It's not the first time that this thing has happened. I haven'ta doubt that the flood of Noah, that everybody pretends to laugh at now,was caused by the earth passing through a watery nebula. But this willbe worse than that; there weren't two thousand million people to bedrowned then."

  For five minutes neither spoke. Cosmo Versal swung on the stool, andplayed with an ellipsograph; Joseph Smith dropped his chin on his breastand nervously fingered the pockets of his long vest. At last he raisedhis head and asked, in a low voice:

  "What are you going to do, Cosmo?"

  "I'm going to get ready," was the short reply.

  "How?"

  "Build an ark."

  "But will you give no warning to others?"

  "I'll do my best. I'll telephone to all the officials, scientific andotherwise, in America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. I'll writein every language to all the newspapers and magazines. I'll send outcirculars. I'll counsel everybody to drop every other occupation andbegin to build arks--but nobody will heed me. You'll see. My ark will bethe only one, but I'll save as many in it as I can. And I depend uponyou, Joseph, to help me. From all appearances, it's the only chance thatthe human race has of survival.

  "If I hadn't made this discovery they would all have been wiped out likeminers in a flooded pit. We may persuade a few to be saved--but what anawful thing it is that when the truth is thrust into their very facespeople won't believe, won't listen, won't see, won't be helped, but willdie like dogs in their obstinate ignorance and blindness."

  "But they will, they must, listen to you," said Joseph Smith eagerly.

  "They _won't_, but I must _make_ them," replied Cosmo Versal."Anyhow, I must make a few of the best of them hear me. The fate of awhole race is at stake. If we can save a handful of the best blood andbrain of mankind, the world will have a new chance, and perhaps a betterand higher race will be the result. Since I can't save them all, I'llpick and choose. I'll have the flower of humanity in my ark. I'll atleast snatch that much from the jaws of destruction."

  The little man was growing very earnest and his eyes were aglow with thefire of enthusiastic purpose. As he dropped his head on one side, itlooked too heavy for the stemlike neck, but it conveyed an impression ofimmense intellectual power. Its imposing contour lent force to hiswords.

  "The flower of humanity," he continued after a slight pause. "Whocomposes it? I must decide that question. Is it the billionaires? Is itthe kings and rulers? Is it the men of science? Is it the societyleaders? Bah! I'll have to think on that. I can't take them all, butI'll give them all a chance to save themselves--though I know they won'tact on the advice."

  Here he paused.

  "Won't the existing ships do--especially if more are built?" JosephSmith suddenly asked, interrupting Cosmo's train of thought.

  "Not at all," was the reply. "They're not suited to the kind ofnavigation that will be demanded. They're not buoyant enough, normanageable enough, and they haven't enough carrying capacity for powerand provisions. They'll be swamped at the wharves, or if they should getaway they'd be sent to the bottom inside a few hours. Nothing butspecially constructed arks will serve. And _there's_ more troublefor me--I must devise a new form of vessel. Heavens, how short the timeis! Why couldn't I have found this out ten years ago? It's only to-daythat I have myself learned the full truth, though I have worked on it solong."

  "How many will you be able to carry in your ark?" asked Smith.

  "I can't tell yet. That's another question to be carefully considered. Ishall build the vessel of this new metal, levium, half as heavy asaluminum and twice as strong as steel. I ought to find room without theslightest difficulty for a round thousand in it."

  "Surely many more than that!" exclaimed Joseph Smith. "Why, there areocean-liners that carry several times as many."

  "You forget," replied Cosmo Versal, "that we must have provisions enoughto last for a long time, because we cannot count on the immediatere-emergence of any land, even the most mountainous, and the mostcompressed food takes space when a great quantity is needed. It won't doto overcrowd the vessel, and invite sickness. Then, too, I must takemany animals along."

  "Animals," returned Smith. "I hadn't thought of that. But is itnecessary?"

  "Absolutely. Would you have less foresight than Noah? I shall notimitate him by taking male and female of every species, but I must atleast provide for restocking such land as eventually appears above thewaters with the animals most useful to man. Then, too, animals areessential to the life of the earth. Any agricultural chemist would tellyou that. They play an indispensable part in the vital cycle of thesoil. I must also take certain species of insects and birds. I'lltelephone Professor Hergeschmitberger at Berlin to learn precisely whatare the capitally important species of the animal kingdom."

  "And when will you begin the construction of the ark?"

  "Instantly. There's not a moment to lose. And it's equally important tosend out warnings broadcast immediately. There you can help me. You knowwhat I want to say. Write it out at once; put it as strong as you can;send it everywhere; put it in the shape of pos
ters; hurry it to thenewspaper offices. Telephone, in my name, to the Carnegie Institution,to the Smithsonian Institution, to the Royal Society, to the French,Russian, Italian, German, and all the other Academies and Associationsof Science to be found anywhere on earth.

  "Don't neglect the slightest means of publicity. Thank Heaven, the moneyto pay for all this is not lacking. If my good father, when he piled uphis fortune from the profits of the Transcontinental Aerian Company,could have foreseen the use to which his son would put it for thebenefit--what do I say, for the benefit? nay, for the _salvation_--ofmankind, he would have rejoiced in his work."

  "Ah, that reminds me," exclaimed Joseph Smith. "I was about to ask, afew minutes ago, why airships would not do for this business. Couldn'tpeople save themselves from the flood by taking refuge in theatmosphere?"

  Cosmo Versal looked at his questioner with an ironical smile.

  "Do you know," he asked, "how long a dirigible can be kept afloat? Doyou know for how long a voyage the best aeroplane types can beprovisioned with power? There's not an air-ship of any kind that can gomore than two weeks at the very uttermost without touching solid earth,and then it must be mighty sparing of its power. If we can save mankindnow, and give it another chance, perhaps the time will come when powercan be drawn out of the ether of space, and men can float in the air aslong as they choose.

  "But as things are now, we must go back to Noah's plan, and trust to thebuoyant power of water. I fully expect that when the deluge beginspeople will flock to the high-lands and the mountains in air-ships--butalas! that won't save them. Remember what I have told you--this flood isgoing to be six miles deep!"

  The second morning after the conversation between Cosmo Versal andJoseph Smith, New York was startled by seeing, in huge red letters, onevery blank wall, on the bare flanks of towering sky-scrapers, on thelofty stations of aeroplane lines, on bill-boards, fences,advertising-boards along suburban roads, in the Subway stations, andfluttering from strings of kites over the city, the followingannouncement:

  THE WORLD IS TO BE DROWNED!

  Save Yourselves While It Is Yet Time! Drop Your Business: It Is of No Consequence! Build Arks: It Is Your Only Salvation! The Earth Is Going To Plunge into a Watery Nebula: There Is No Escape! Hundreds of Millions Will Be Drowned: You Have Only a Few Months To Get Ready! For Particulars Address: Cosmo Versal, 3000 Fifth Avenue.