The Skylark of Space - E. E. Smith (e book reading free txt) 📗

soon reached it, seized it in both hands, again darted into the air, and descended lightly near the others, who were rocking with laughter.

“I said it would be undignified,” chuckled Seaton, rather short of breath, “but I didn’t know just how much so it was going to be.”

Dorothy tucked her fingers into his hand.

“Are you hurt anywhere, Dick?”

“Not a bit. He led me a great chase, though.”

“I was scared to death until you told Martin to let the switch alone. But it was funny then! I hadn’t noticed your resemblance to a jumping-jack before. Won’t you do it again sometime and let us take a movie of it?”

“That was as good as any show in town, Dick,” said the lawyer, wiping his eyes, “but you must be more careful. Next time, it might not be funny at all.”

“There will be no next time for this rig,” replied Seaton. “This is merely to show us that our ideas are all right. The next trip will be in a full-scale, completely-equipped boat.”

“It was perfectly wonderful,” declared Dorothy. “I know this first flight of yours will be a turning-point or something in history. I don’t pretend to understand how you did it⁠—the sight of you standing still up there in the air made me wonder if I really were awake, even though I knew what to expect⁠—but we wouldn’t have missed it for worlds, would we, Dad?”

“No. I am very glad that we saw the first demonstration. The world has never before seen anything like it, and you two men will rank as two of the greatest discoverers.”

“Seaton will, you mean,” replied Crane, uncomfortably. “You know I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“It’s nearly all yours,” denied Seaton. “Without your ideas I would have lost myself in space in my first attempt.”

“You are both wrong,” said Vaneman. “You, Martin, haven’t enough imagination; and you, Dick, have altogether too much, for either of you to have done this alone. The honor will be divided equally between you.”

He turned to Crane as Dorothy and Seaton set out toward the house.

“What are you going to do with it, commercially? Dick, of course, hasn’t thought of anything except this space-car⁠—equally of course, you have?”

“Yes. Knowing the general nature of the power and confident that Dick would control it, I have already drawn up sketches for a power-plant installation of five hundred thousand electrical horsepower, which will enable us to sell power for less than one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour and still return twenty percent annual dividends. However, the power-plant comes after the flyer.”

“Why? Why not build the power-plant first, and take the pleasure trip afterward?”

“There are several reasons. The principal one is that Dick and I would rather be off exploring new worlds, while the other members of the Seaton-Crane Company, Engineers, build the power-plant.”

During the talk the men had reached the house, into which the others had disappeared some time before. Upon Crane’s invitation, Vaneman and his daughter stayed to dinner, and Dorothy played for awhile upon Crane’s wonderful violin. The rest of the evening was spent in animated discussion of the realization of Seaton’s dreams of flying without wings and beyond the supporting atmosphere. Seaton and Crane did their best to explain to the nontechnical visitors how such flight was possible.

“Well, I am beginning to understand it a little,” said Dorothy finally. “In plain language, it is like a big magnet or something, but different. Is that it?”

“That’s it exactly,” Seaton assured her.

“What are you going to call it? It isn’t like anything else that ever was. Already this evening you have called it a bus, a boat, a kite, a star-hound, a wagon, an aerial flivver, a sky-chariot, a space-eating wampus, and I don’t know what else. Even Martin has called it a vehicle, a ship, a bird, and a shell. What is its real name?”

“I don’t know. It hasn’t got any that I know of. What would you suggest, Dottie?”

“I don’t know what general name should be applied to them, but for this one there is only one possible name, the ‘Skylark.’ ”

“Exactly right, Dorothy,” said Crane.

“Fine!” cried Seaton. “And you shall christen it, Dottie, with a big Florence flask full of absolute vacuum. ‘I christen you “The Skylark.” Bang!’ ”

As the guests were leaving, at a late hour, Vaneman said:

“Oh, yes. I bought an extra Clarion as we came out. It tells a wild tale of an explosion so violent that science cannot explain it. I don’t suppose it is true, but it may make interesting reading for you two scientific sharps. Good night.”

Seaton accompanied Dorothy to the car, bidding her a more intimate farewell on the way. When he returned, Crane, with an unusual expression of concern on his face, handed him the paper without a word.

“What’s up, old man? Something in it?” he asked, as he took the paper. He fell silent as he read the first words, and after he had read the entire article he said slowly:

“True, beyond a doubt. Even a Clarion reporter couldn’t imagine that. It’s all intra-atomic energy, all right⁠—some poor devil trying our stunt without my horseshoe in his pocket.”

“Think, Dick! Something is wrong somewhere. You know that two people did not discover X at the same time. The answer is that somebody stole your idea, but the idea is worthless without the X. You say that the stuff is extremely rare⁠—where did they get it?”

“That’s right, Mart. I never thought of that. The stuff is extremely rare. I am supposed to know something about rare metals, and I never heard of it before⁠—there isn’t even a gap in the Periodic System in which it belongs. I would bet a hat that we have every milligram known to the world at present.”

“Well, then,” said the practical Crane. “We had better see whether or not we have all we started with.”

Asking Shiro to bring the large bottle from the vault, he opened the living-room safe and brought forth the small vial.