Cold Light By Capt Read online

  “Who are you?” demanded John

  face wound doesn’t amount to much, but I am Smith.

  shot through the body and am bleeding

  “Dr. Bird, of the Bureau of Standards.”

  internally. If you try to move me, it may easily

  “Oh, Bird. I’ve heard of you. You can

  kill me. Leave me alone until your partners understand me when I say that as heat,

  come.”

  positive heat is a concomitant of ordinary

  The doctor drew a flask of brandy light. I have found that cold, negative heat, is from his pocket and advanced toward the a concomitant of cold light. Is my apparatus in corner.

  good shape outside?”

  “Take a few drops of this,” he advised.

  “The reflector is smashed.”

  With an effort the man lifted the flask

  “I’m sorry. You would have enjoyed

  to his lips and gulped down a little of the fiery studying it. I presume that you saw that it was spirit. A sound of tramping feet came from the a catenary curve?”

  outside and then a thud as though a body had

  “I rather thought so.”

  been dropped. Carnes and Walter entered the

  “It was, and it was also adjustable. I

  cabin.

  could vary the focal point from a few feet to

  “He’s dead as a mackerel,” said several miles. With that apparatus I could Carnes in answer to the doctor’s look. “Walter throw a beam of negative heat with a focal

  got him through the neck and broke his spinal point which I could adjust at will. Close to the cord. He never knew what hit him.”

  apparatus, I could obtain a temperature almost

  “The plans?” came in a gasping voice

  down to absolute zero, but at the longer ranges from the man in the corner.

  it wasn’t so cold, due to leakage into the

  “We got them, too,” replied Carnes.

  atmosphere. Even at two miles I could

  “He had both packets inside his coat. They

  produce a local temperature of three hundred have been opened, but I guess they are all

  degrees below zero.”

  here. Who the devil are you?”

  “What was the source of your cold?”

  “Since Koskoff is dead, and I am

  “Liquid helium. Those cylinders

  dying, there is no reason why I shouldn’t tell contain, or rather did contain, for I expect that you,” was the answer. “Leave that brandy

  Koskoff has emptied them, helium in a liquid handy to keep up my strength. I have only a state.”

  short time and I can’t repeat.

  “Where is your compressor?”

  Cold Light

  11

  “I didn’t have to use one. I developed

  think he was waiting here for someone to

  a cold light under whose rays helium would

  come. Had we followed our original plans, we liquefy and remain in a state of equilibrium would have been miles from here before you

  until exposed to light rays. Those cylinders arrived.

  had merely enough pressure to force the liquid

  “He had me bound and helpless, as he

  out to where the sun could hit it, and then it thought, but I worked my bonds a little loose.

  turned to a gas, dropping the temperature at I didn’t let him know it, for I knew that the the first focal point of the reflector to absolute plane I had let get away would guide a party zero. When I had this much done, Koskoff and here and I thought I might be able to help out.

  I packed the whole apparatus here and were

  When you came and attacked the house, I

  ready for work.

  worked at my bonds until they were loose

  “We were on the path of the enough to throw off. I saw Koskoff start my transcontinental air mail, and I bided my time cold apparatus to working and then he quit, until an especially valuable shipment was to because he ran out of helium. When he started be made. My plans, which worked perfectly,

  shooting again, I worked out of my bonds and were to freeze the plane in midair and then rob tackled him.

  the wreck. I heard of the jewel shipment the T.

  “He was a better man than I gave him

  A. C. was to carry and I planned to get it.

  credit for, or else he suspected me, for about When the plane came over, Koskoff and I

  the time I grabbed him he whirled and struck brought it down. The unsuspected presence of me over the head with his gun barrel and tore another plane upset us a little, and I started to my face open. The blow stunned me, and

  bring it down. But we had been all over this when I came to, I was thrown into this corner.

  country and knew there was no place that a

  I meant to have another try at it, but I guess plane could land. I let it go on in safety.”

  you rushed him too fast. He turned and ran for

  “Thank you,” replied Carnes with a

  the tunnel, but as he did so, he shot me

  grimace.

  through the body. I guess I didn’t look dead

  “We robbed the wreck and we found

  enough to suit him. You gentlemen broke

  two packets, one the jewels I was after, and open the door and came in. That’s all.”

  the other a sealed packet, which proved to

  “Not by a long shot, it isn’t,”

  contain certain War Department plans. That

  exclaimed Dr. Bird. “Where is that cold light was when I learned who Koskoff was. I had

  apparatus of yours?”

  hired him in San Francisco as a good

  “In the tunnel.”

  mechanic who had no principles. He was to

  “How do you get into it?”

  get one-fourth of the loot. When we found

  “If you will open that cupboard on the

  these plans, he told me who he was. He was

  wall, you’ll find an open knife switch on the really a Russian secret agent and he wanted to wall. Close it.”

  deliver the plans to Russia. I may be a thief Dr. Bird found the switch and closed

  and a murderer, but I am not yet ready to

  it. As he did so the cabin rocked on its

  betray my country, and I told him so. He

  foundations and both Carnes and Walter were offered me almost any price for the plans; but thrown to the ground. The thud of a

  I wouldn’t listen. We had a serious quarrel, detonation deep in the earth came to their ears.

  and he overpowered me and bound me.

  “What was that?” cried the doctor.

  “We had a radio set here and he called

  “That,” replied Smith with a wan

  San Francisco and sent some code message. I smile, “was the detonation of two hundred

  Astounding Stories of Super Science 12

  pounds of T.N.T. When you dig down into the him. He doesn’t strike me as a man who left underground cave where we used the cold

  overmuch to chance. Carnes, is your case

  light apparatus, you will find it in fragments.

  completed?”

  It was my only child, and I’ll take it with me.”

  “Very satisfactorily, Doctor. I have

  As he finished his head slumped both of the lost packets.”

  forward on his chest. With an exclamation of

  “All right, then, come back to the

  dismay Dr. Bird sprang forward and tried to wreck and help me pack my burros. I can

  lift the prostrate form.

  make my way back to Fallon without a guide.”

  In an agony of desire the Doctor

  “Where are you going, Doctor?”

  tightened his grip on the dying man’s

  “That, Carnes, old dear, is none of

  shoulder. But Smith collaps
ed into a heap. Dr.

  your blankety blanked business. Permit me to Bird bent forward and tore open his shirt and remind you that I am on my vacation. I

  listened at his chest. Presently he straightened haven’t decided yet just where I am going, but up.

  I can tell you one thing. It’s going to be some

  “He is gone,” he said sadly, “and I

  place where you can’t call me on the

  guess the results of his genius have died with telephone.”