The Solar Magnet Read online

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  Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Astounding Stories October 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

  _Pistol in hand, the two men watched the oncoming lights._]

  The Solar Magnet

  By Capt. S. P. Meek

  +------------------------------------+ | Another episode in Dr. Bird's long | | scientific duel with his country's | | arch-enemy, Saranoff. | +------------------------------------+

  The milling crowd in front of the Capitol suddenly grew quiet. A tallportly figure came out onto the porch of the building and stepped beforea microphone erected on the steps. A battery of press cameras clicked. Anewsreel photographer ground away on his machine. Wild cheers rent theair. The President held up his hand for silence. As the cheering diedaway he spoke into the microphone.

  "My countrymen," he said, "the Congress of the United States has met inextraordinary session and is ready to cope with the condition withwhich we are confronted. While they deliberate as to the steps to betaken, it is essential that you meet this danger, if it be a danger,with the bravery and the calm front which has always characterized thepeople of the United States in times of trial and danger. You may restassured--"

  A slightly built, inconspicuous man who had followed the President outonto the porch was surveying the crowd intently. He turned and spoke inan undertone to a second man who mysteriously appeared from nowhere asthe first man spoke. He listened for a moment, nodded, and edged closerto the President. The first man slipped unobtrusively down the Capitolsteps and mingled with the crowd.

  "--that no steps will be neglected which may prove of value," went onthe President. "The greatest scientists of the country have gathered inthis city in conference and they undoubtedly will soon find a simple andnatural explanation for what is happening. In the meantime--"

  * * * * *

  The President paused. From the crowd in front of him came a suddendisturbance. A man sprang free of the crowd and broke through therestraining cordon of police. In his hand gleamed an ugly blue steelautomatic pistol. Quickly he leveled it and fired. A puff of dust camefrom the Capitol. The bullet had landed a few inches from one of thelower windows, fifty feet from where the President stood. He raised hisweapon for a second shot but it was never fired. The man who had comedown the Capitol steps sprang forward like a cat and grasped the weapon.For a moment the two men struggled, but only for a moment. From thecrowd, stunned for a moment by the sheer audacity of the attack, came aroar of rage. The police closed in about the struggling men but thecrowd rolled over them like a wave. The captor shouted his identity andtried to display the gold badge of the secret service but the mob wasin no state of mind to listen. The police were trampled underfoot andthe would-be assassin torn from the hands of the secret serviceoperative. Every man in reach tried to strike a blow. The secret serviceman was buffeted and thrown aside. Realizing that the affair had beentaken out of his hands, he made his way to the rear of the Capitol wherehis badge gained him ready passage through the cordon of police. Heentered the building and reappeared in a few moments by the side of thePresident.

  * * * * *

  Two hours later he leaned forward in his chair in Dr. Bird's privatelaboratory in the Bureau of Standards and spoke earnestly.

  "Dr. Bird," he said, "that bullet was never meant for the President.That man was after bigger game."

  The famous scientist nodded thoughtfully.

  "Even a very rotten pistol shot should have come closer to him," hereplied. "He must have missed by a good forty feet."

  "He missed by a matter of inches. Doctor, that bullet struck the Capitolonly two inches from a window. In that window was standing a man. Thebullet was intended for the occupant of that window. I was directlybehind him when he raised his weapon for a second shot and I am sure ofhis aim. He deliberately ignored the President and aimed again at thatwindow. That was when I tackled him."

  "Who was standing there, Carnes?"

  "_You_ were, Doctor."

  Dr. Bird whistled.

  "Then you think that bullet was intended for me?"

  "I am sure of it, Doctor. That fact proves one thing to me. You areright in your idea that this whole affair is man-made and not anaccident of nature. The guiding intelligence back of it fears you morethan he fears anyone else and he took this means to get rid of youunobtrusively. Attention was focused on the President. Your death wouldhave been laid to accident. It was a clever thought."

  "It does look that way, Carnes," said the doctor slowly. "If you areright, this incident confirms my opinion. There is only one man in theworld clever enough to have disturbed the orderly course of the seasons,and such a plan for my assassination would appeal to his love of thedramatic."

  "You mean--"

  "Ivan Saranoff, of course."

  "We are pretty sure that he hasn't got back to the United States,Doctor."

  "You may be right but I am sure of nothing where that man is concerned.However, that fact has no bearing. He may be operating from anywhere.His organization is still in the United States."

  * * * * *

  A knock sounded at the door. In response to the doctor's command amessenger entered and presented a letter. Dr. Bird read it and droppedit in a waste basket.

  "Tell them that I am otherwise engaged just now," he said curtly. Themessenger withdrew. "It was just a summons to another meeting of thecouncil of scientists," he said to Carnes. "They'll have to get alongwithout me. All they'll do anyway will be to read a lot of dispatchesand wrangle about data and the relative accuracy of their observations.Herriott will lecture for hours on celestial mechanics and propound somefool theory about a hidden body, which doesn't exist, and its possibleinfluence, which would be nil, on the inclination of the earth's axis.After wasting four hours without a single constructive idea being putforward, they will gravely conclude that the sun rose fifty-threeseconds earlier at the fortieth north parallel than it did yesterday andcorrespondingly later at the fortieth south parallel. I know thatwithout wasting time."

  "Was it fifty-three seconds to-day, Doctor?"

  "Yes. This is the twentieth of July. The sun should have risen at 4:52,sixteen minutes later than it rose on June twentieth and fifty-threeseconds later than it rose yesterday. Instead it rose at 4:20, sixteenminutes _earlier_ than it did on June twentieth and fifty-three secondsearlier than yesterday."

  "I don't understand what is causing it, Doctor. I have tried to followyour published explanations, but they are a little too deep for me."

  * * * * *

  "As to the real underlying cause, I am in grave doubts, Carnes, althoughI can make a pretty shrewd guess. As to the reason for the unnaturallengthening of the day, the explanation is simplicity itself. As youdoubtless know, the earth revolves daily on its axis. At the same time,it is moving in a great ellipse about the sun, an ellipse which it takesit a year to cover. If the axis of rotation of the earth were at rightangles to the plane of its orbit; in other words, if the earth's equatorlay in the plane of the earth's movement about the sun, each day wouldbe of the same length and there would be no seasons. Instead of thisbeing the case, the axis of rotation of the earth is tipped so that theangle between the equator and the elliptic is 23-1/2 deg."

  "I seem to remember something of the sort from my school days."

  "This angle of tilt may be assumed to be constant, for I won't botherwith the precessions, nutations and other minor movements considered inaccurate computat
ions. As the earth moves around the sun, this tiltgives rise to what we call the sun's declination. You can readily seethat at one time in the year, the north pole will be at its nearestpoint to the sun, speaking in terms of tilt and not in miles, while atanother point on the elliptic, it will be farthest from the sun and thesouth pole nearest. There are two midway points when the two poles arepractically equidistant."

  "Then the days and nights should be of equal length."

  "They are. These are the periods of the equinoxes. The point at whichthe sun is nearest to the south pole we call the winter solstice, andthe opposite point, the summer solstice. The summer solstice is on Junetwenty-first. At that time the declination of the sun is 23-1/2 deg.north of the equatorial line. It starts to decrease until, six monthslater, it reaches a minus