



Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









            THE CRACK OF DOOM


                   BY

              ROBERT CROMIE
 _Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc._


            _SECOND EDITION_


                 LONDON
            DIGBY, LONG & CO.
 18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
                  1895




PREFACE


The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were
given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance
which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can
be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of
names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes
nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to
consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have
been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the
narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He
does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all
which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind
to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the
proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will
produce.

                                                        ROBERT CROMIE.

BELFAST, _May, 1895_.




CONTENTS


  CHAP.                                  PAGE

     I. THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!             1

    II. A STRANGE EXPERIMENT               10

   III. "IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE"           21

    IV. GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED            32

     V. THE MURDER CLUB                    41

    VI. A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM              51

   VII. GUILTY!                            62

  VIII. THE WOKING MYSTERY                 72

    IX. CUI BONO?                          81

     X. FORCE--A REMEDY                    93

    XI. MORITURI TE SALUTANT              104

   XII. "NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE"          111

  XIII. MISS METFORD'S PLAN               123

   XIV. ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS          133

    XV. "IF NOT TOO LATE"                 146

   XVI. L5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP          160

  XVII. "THIS EARTH SHALL DIE"            174

 XVIII. THE FLIGHT                        184

   XIX. THE CATASTROPHE                   197

    XX. CONCLUSION                        208




THE CRACK OF DOOM




CHAPTER I.

THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!


"The Universe is a mistake!"

Thus spake Herbert Brande, a passenger on the _Majestic_, making for
Queenstown Harbour, one evening early in the past year. Foolish as the
words may seem, they were partly influential in leading to my terrible
association with him, and all that is described in this book.

Brande was standing beside me on the starboard side of the vessel. We
had been discussing a current astronomical essay, as we watched the hazy
blue line of the Irish coast rise on the horizon. This conversation was
interrupted by Brande, who said, impatiently:

"Why tell us of stars distant so far from this insignificant little
world of ours--so insignificant that even its own inhabitants speak
disrespectfully of it--that it would take hundreds of years to telegraph
to some of them, thousands to others, and millions to the rest? Why
limit oneself to a mere million of years for a dramatic illustration,
when there is a star in space distant so far from us that if a telegram
left the earth for it this very night, and maintained for ever its
initial velocity, it would never reach that star?"

He said this without any apparent effort after rhetorical effect; but
the suddenness with which he had presented a very obvious truism in a
fresh light to me made the conception of the vastness of space
absolutely oppressive. In the hope of changing the subject I replied:

"Nothing is gained by dwelling on these scientific speculations. The
mind is only bewildered. The Universe is inexplicable."

"The Universe!" he exclaimed. "That is easily explained. The Universe is
a mistake!"

"The greatest mistake of the century, I suppose," I added, somewhat
annoyed, for I thought Brande was laughing at me.

"Say, of Time, and I agree with you," he replied, careless of my
astonishment.

I did not answer him for some moments.

This man Brande was young in years, but middle-aged in the expression of
his pale, intellectual face, and old--if age be synonymous with
knowledge--