CHAPTER VIII
STORMING THE ARK
There was to be no more respite now. The time of warnings was past. The"signs" had all been shown to a skeptical and vacillating world, and atlast the fulfillment was at hand.
There was no crying of "extras" in the streets, for men had somethingmore pressing to think of than sending and reading news about theirdistresses and those of their fellow-men. Many of the newspapers ceasedpublication; every business place was abandoned; there was no thoughtbut of the means of escape.
But how should they escape? And whither should they fly?
The lower lying streets were under water. The Atlantic still surged backand forth as if the ocean itself were in agony. And every time the wavespoured in they rose higher. The new shores of the bay, and the newcoasts of Long Island and New Jersey, receding inward hour by hour, werestrewn with the wrecks of hundreds of vessel of all kinds which had beencaught by the surges and pitilessly hurled to destruction.
Even if men did not yet fully believe in Cosmo Versal's theory of awhelming nebula, they were terrified to the bottom of their souls by theconviction, which nobody could resist, that the vast ice-fields of thenorth, the glaciers of Greenland, the icy mountains of Alaska, hadmelted away under the terrible downpour of heat, and were swelling theoceans over their brims. And then a greater fear dropped like a blanketupon them. Some one thought of the _antarctic ice._
The latest dispatches that had come, before the cessation of allcommunication to the newspapers, had told of the prevalence of stiflingheat throughout the southern hemisphere, and of the vast fleets ofantarctic icebergs that filled the south seas. The mighty deposits ofice, towering to mountain heights, that stretched a thousand miles inevery direction around the south pole were melting as the arctic ice hadmelted, and, when the water thus formed was added to the alreadyoverflowing seas, to what elevation might not the flood attain!
The antarctic ice was known to be the principal mass of frozen water onthe globe. The frigid cap of the north was nothing in comparison withit. It had long been believed that that tremendous accumulationunbalanced the globe and was the principal cause of the unsteadiness ofthe earth's axis of rotation.
Every fresh exploration had only served to magnify the conception of theincredible vastness of that deposit. The skirts of the AntarcticContinent had proved to be rich in minerals wherever the rocks couldfind a place to penetrate through the gigantic burden of ice, and theprincipal nations had quarreled over the possession or control of theseprotruding bits of wealth-crammed strata. But behind the borderingcliffs of ice, rising in places a thousand feet above the level of thesea, and towering farther inland so high that this region was, in meanelevation, the loftiest on the planet, nothing but ice could be seen.
And now that ice was dissolving and flowing into the swollen oceans,adding billions of tons of water every minute!
Men did not stop to calculate, as Cosmo Versal had done, just how muchthe dissolution of all the ice and permanent snow of the globe would addto the volume of the seas. He knew that it would be but a drop in thebucket--although sufficient to start the flood--and that the great thingto be feared was the condensation of the aqueous nebula, alreadybeginning to enwrap the planet in its stifling folds.
The public could understand the melting ice, although it could not fullyunderstand the nebula; it could understand the swelling sea, and theraging rivers, and the lakes breaking over their banks--and the terrorand despair became universal.
But what should they _do?_
Those who had thought of building arks hurried to see if the work mightnot yet be completed, but most of them had begun their foundations onlow land, which was already submerged.
Then a cry arose, terrible in its significance and in itsconsequences--one of those cries that the vanished but unconquerable godPan occasionally sets ringing, nobody can tell how:
"Cosmo's ark! Get aboard! Storm it!"
And thereupon there was a mighty rush for Mineola. Nobody who caught theinfection stopped to reason. Some of them had to wade through water,which in places was knee-deep. They came from various directions, andunited in a yelling mob. They meant to carry the ark with a rush. Theywould not be denied. As the excited throngs neared the great vessel theysaw its huge form rising like a mount of safety, with an American flagflapping over it, and they broke into a mighty cheer. On they sped,seized with the unreason of a crowd, shouting, falling over one another,struggling, fighting for places, men dragging their wives and childrenthrough the awful crush, many trampled helpless under the myriads ofstruggling feet--driving the last traces of sanity from one another'sminds.
The foremost ranks presently spied Cosmo Versal, watching them from anopen gangway sixty feet above their heads. They were dismayed at findingthe approaches gone. How should they get into the ark? How could theyclimb up its vertical sides?
But they would find means. They would re-erect the approaches. Theywould _get in somehow_.
Cosmo waved them off with frantic gesticulations; then, through atrumpet, he shouted in a voice audible above the din:
"Keep back, for your lives!"
But they paid no attention to him; they rushed upon the raised wall,surrounding the field where Cosmo had buried his mysterious lines ofwire. Then the meaning of that enigmatical work was flashed upon them.
As the first to arrive laid their hands upon the top of the low wallthey fell as if shot through the brain, tumbling backward on thosebehind. Others pushed wildly on, but the instant they touched the wallthey too collapsed. Wicked blue-green sparks occasionally flashed abovethe struggling mass.
The explanation was clear. Cosmo, foreseeing the probability of adespairing attack, had surrounded the ark with an impassable electricbarrier. The sound of a whirring dynamo could be heard. A tremendouscurrent was flowing through the hidden wires and transmitting itsparalyzing energy to the metallic crest of the wall.
Still those behind pushed on, until rank after rank had sunk helpless atthe impregnable line of defense. They were not killed--at least, notmany--but the shock was so paralyzing that those who had experienced itseffects made no further attempts to cross the barrier. Many lay for atime helpless upon the sodden ground.
Cosmo and Joseph Smith, who had now appeared at his side, continued toshout warnings, which began to be heeded when the nature of the obstaclebecame known. The rush was stopped, and the multitude stood at bay,dazed, and uncertain what to do. Then a murmur arose, growing louder andmore angry and threatening, until suddenly a shot was heard in the midstof the crowd, and Cosmo was seen to start backward, while Joseph Smithinstantly dodged out of sight.
A cry arose:
"Shoot him! That's right! Shoot the devil! He's a witch! He's drowningthe world!"
They meant it--at least, half of them did. It was the logic of terror.
Hundreds of shots were now fired from all quarters, and heads that hadbeen seen flitting behind the various portholes instantly disappeared.The bullets rattled on the huge sides of the ark, but they came fromsmall pistols and had not force enough to penetrate.
Cosmo Versal alone remained in sight. Occasionally a quick motion showedthat even his nerves were not steady enough to defy the whistling of thebullets passing close; but he held his ground, and stretched out hishand to implore attention.
When the fusillade ceased for a moment he put his trumpet again to hislips and shouted:
"I have done my best to save you, but you would not listen. Although Iknow that you must perish, I would not myself harm a hair of your heads.Go back, I implore you. You may prolong your lives if you will fly tothe highlands and the mountains--but here you cannot enter. _The arkis full._"
Another volley of shots was the only answer. One broad-shouldered manforced his way to the front, took his stand close to the wall, andyelled in stentorian tones:
"Cosmo Versal, listen to me! You are the curse of the world! You havebrought this flood upon us with your damnable incantations. Yourinfernal nebula is the seal of Sata
n! Here, beast and devil, here at myfeet, lies my only son, slain by your hellish device. By the Eternal Iswear you shall go back to the pit!"
Instantly a pistol flashed in the speaker's hand, and five shots rang inquick succession. One after another they whistled by Cosmo's head andflattened themselves upon the metal-work behind. Cosmo Versal,untouched, folded his arms and looked straight at his foe. The man,staring a moment confusedly, as if he could not comprehend his failure,threw up his arms with a despairing gesture, and fell prone upon theground.
Then yells and shots once more broke out. Cosmo stepped back, and agreat metallic door swung to, closing the gangway.
But three minutes later the door opened, and the mob saw twomachine-guns trained upon them.
Once more Cosmo appeared, with the trumpet.
"If you fire again," he cried, "I shall sweep you with grapeshot. I havetold you how you can prolong your lives. Now go!"
Not another shot was fired. In the face of the guns, whose terriblepower all comprehended, no one dared to make a hostile movement.
But, perhaps, if Cosmo Versal had not set new thoughts running in theminds of the assailants by telling them there was temporary safety to befound by seeking high ground, even the terror of the guns would not havedaunted them. Now their hopefulness was reawakened, and many began toponder upon his words.
"He says we must perish, and yet that we can find safety in the hillsand mountains," said one man. "I believe half of that is a lie. We arenot going to be drowned. The water won't rise much higher. The floodfrom the south pole that they talk about must be here by this time, andthen what's left to come?"
"The nebula," suggested one.
"Aw, the nebula be hanged! There's no such thing! I live on high ground;I'm going to keep a sharp outlook, and if the water begins to shut offManhattan I'll take my family up the Hudson to the Highlands. I guessold Storm King'll keep his head above. That's where I come from--up thatway. I used to hear people say when I was a boy that New York was boundto sink some day. I used to laugh at that then, but it looks mighty likeit now, don't it?"
"Say," put in another, "what did the fellow mean by saying the ark was_full_? That's funny, ain't it? Who's he got inside, anyway?"
"Oh, he ain't got nobody," said another.
"Yes, he has. I seen a goodish lot through the portholes. He's gotsomebody, sure."
"A lot of fools like himself, most likely."
"Well, if he's a fool, and they's fools, what are _we_, I'd like toknow? What did you come here for, hey?"
It was a puzzling question, and brought forth only a sheepish laugh,followed by the remark:
"I guess we fooled ourselves considerable. We got scared too easy."
"Maybe you'll feel scared again when you see the water climbing up thestreets in New York. I don't half like this thing. I'm going to followhis advice and light out for higher ground."
Soon conversation of this sort was heard on all sides, and the crowdbegan to disperse, only those lingering behind who had friends orrelatives that had been struck down at the fatal wall. It turned outthat not more than one or two had been mortally shocked. The rest wereable to limp away, and many had fully recovered within five minutesafter suffering the shock. In half an hour not a dozen persons were insight from the ark.
But when the retreating throngs drew near the shores of the Sound, andthe East River, which had expanded into a true arm of the sea, and foundthat there had been a perceptible rise since they set out to capture theark, they began to shake their heads and fear once more entered theirhearts.
Thousands then and there resolved that they would not lose anotherinstant in setting out for high land, up the Hudson, in Connecticut,among the hills of New Jersey. In fact, many had already fled thither,some escaping on aeros; and hosts would now have followed but for amarvelous change that came just before nightfall and prevented them.
For some days the heavens had alternately darkened and lightened, asgushes of mist came and went, but there had been no actual rain. Now,without warning, a steady downpour began. Even at the beginning it wouldhave been called, in ordinary times, a veritable cloudburst; but itrapidly grew worse and worse, until there was no word in the vernacularor in the terminology of science to describe it.
It seemed, in truth, that "all the fountains of the great deep werebroken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." The water thunderedupon the roofs, and poured off them in torrents. In five minutes everysloping street had become an angry river, and every level place aswelling lake. People caught out of doors were almost beaten to theground by the force of the water falling upon them as if they had beenstanding under a cataract.
In a short time every cellar and every basement was filled tooverflowing, and in the avenues the flood, lapping every instant higherupon the doorsteps and the walls, rushed by with frightful roarings,bearing in its awful embrace pieces of furniture, clothing, bedding,washed out of ground-floor rooms--and, alas! human beings; somemotionless, already mercifully deprived of life, but others strugglingand shouting for aid which could not be given.
So terrible a spectacle no one had ever looked upon, no one had everimagined. Those who beheld it were too stunned to cry out, toooverwhelmed with terror and horror to utter a word. They stood, or fellinto chairs or upon the floor, trembling in every limb, with staringeyes and drooping jaws, passively awaiting their fate.
As night came on there was no light. The awful darkness of the _thirdsign_ once more settled upon the great city, but now it was not theterror of indefinite expectation that crushed down the souls of men andwomen--it was the weight of doom accomplished!
There was no longer any room for self-deception; every quaking heartfelt now that the nebula had come. _Cosmo Versal had been right!_
After the water had attained a certain height in the streets and yards,depending upon the ratio between the amount descending from the sky andthat which could find its way to the rivers, the flood for the timebeing rose no higher. The actual drowning of New York could not happenuntil the Hudson and the East River should become so swollen that thewater would stand above the level of the highest buildings, and turn thewhole region round about, as far as the Orange hills, the RamapoMountains, the Highlands, and the Housatonic hills, into an inland sea.
But before we tell that story we must return to see what was going on atMineola. Cosmo Versal, on that awful night when New York first knewbeyond the shadow of a doubt, or the gleam of a hope, that it wasdoomed, presided over a remarkable assembly in the grand saloon of hisark.