Oliver's mild blue eyes turned towards his flippant son. '10.55 p.m., my boy. That, of course, is the time at which the comet is actually due to impinge on the North Pacific; but we may well be dead long before then.'
'What'll we have to fear before the crash?' Hemmingway inquired.
'All sorts of unpleasant things. As you probably know, the crust of the earth is thinner, by comparison, than the skin of an orange. Its whole interior is still a molten mass with, we now believe, a solid core at its centre. Directly the comet is near enough for the earth to feel its influence, the centrifugal values of the earth are bound to change. The solid core, if it exists, will respond to the pull of gravity and, instead of continuing to rotate on a constant axis, will revolve on one moving in a increasing spiral following that part of the earth's surface which, as the earth turns, is nearest to the approaching comet. In any case, the mass of molten matter under the earth's crust is bound to be affected, which will cause many volcanoes to become active. There will be terrific eruptions and almost certainly major earthquakes long before the comet hits us.'
'At all events, we may console ourselves with the thought that Britain is well away from the earthquake zones,' Gervaise remarked.
'True,' Oliver nodded, 'but these seismic disturbances will give rise to other serious happenings. Britain is hardly likely to be effected by the first shock but, as the earthquake belt passes from Iceland through the Azores and thence to the more southern of the West Indies, we may anticipate great upheavals under the sea which will cause tidal waves to pile up on both sides of the Atlantic. It is even possible that they might be so vast as to sweep right over Great Britain.'
'Another flood,' interjected Hemmingway.
'Exactly. You may remember the legend of The Lost Atlantis. Most scientists regard that as a myth but during the last century many myths have been proved to be race-memories of actual occurrences. It is said that a great island continent, as large as France and Germany put together, once occupied the centre of the Atlantic and that it was submerged with all its people about 11,500 years ago in one terrible day and night of tempest, earthquake and flood. Such a cataclysm might well have been caused by a comet coming very near the earth, or as some people believe, a comet actually colliding with it,
and it's quite on the cards that a similar fate might overtake us.'
'Personally, I'm quite convinced that the submergence of Atlantis is an historic fact,' Gervaise declared. 'Anyone who has an extensive knowledge of ancient religions can hardly fail to see that. It was the destruction of Atlantis which gave rise to the Biblical account of the Flood and similar stories which are to be found in the literature of all ancient peoples living on both sides of the Atlantic. But, of course, the flood was local, and by far the greater portion of the human race survived.'
'I still can't believe it'll happen,' Derek said suddenly. 'I'm sorry, Oliver, but the whole thing's too fantastic.'
Hemmingway drew slowly on his cigarette and looked across at him. 'L felt that way, too, when I was first told of this business but, knowing as I do how the national leaders of practically every country in the world are reacting. I can't escape the conviction that something pretty frightful is coming to us. It's that which decided me to have this talk with you all today. I wish I'd done it sooner, but I wasn't quite convinced before. Now I am, I want to know what our chances are. The big question is, will the whole earth go to pieces or have we only to face a major catastrophe in which there's a chance for some of us to survive?'
'That none of us can tell until the 24th of June,' Oliver said quietly.
'Then there is a hope that some people may manage to see the party through?'
'Certainly. Although I consider it a very slender one.'
'Still, in that case, it's surely up to us to use every ingenuity we have to provide ourselves with the best possible chance of survival?'
'Yes, that's only reasonable. But such a huge tidal wave as we may expect would sweep everything before it; so I don't think there's much that any of us could do with any real hope of saving ourselves.'
'I'm pretty hot on mountaineering,' Roy grinned. 'If I can raise the cash to get across the Channel, I shall go and sit on top of Mont Blanc.'
'No,' said Gervaise decisively. 'If there's going to be a second Deluge, our best hope is to build another Ark.'
Rumours and a Refuge
'An Ark,' Roy repeated with a grin. 'Uncle Gervaise would make a splendid Noah but he has no son and only one son-in-law. If Derek and I play Ham and Japheth, may we each bring along a girl-friend?'
Derek smiled. Til leave that to you and Hemmingway; but I'm pretty good with animals so I'll superintend the "they marched in two by two" business.'
'Shut up, you idiots!' frowned Margery. 'Can't you see this is serious?'
The other three ignored their flippancy and Oliver inquired: 'What sort of Ark had you in mind, Gervaise?'
The best thing, I suppose, would be to charter a medium-sized, well-built sailing ship. We should then be independent of coal or oil; which it might be impossible to obtain after our first supply had run out if we chartered a steamer. Unfortunately though, I'm in no position to do so myself, because I lack the money.'
'Sam's got plenty. So have I, for that matter,' Hemmingway said quickly, 'and it's my job to do anything I think Sam would wish while he's away. I feel now that we should not delay another hour in taking what steps we can to survive if possible, and Sam will naturally want his wife's people to be in on anything we may decide to do. As he's absent, it's up to us to make some sort of plan, and I'll be responsible for finance, whatever the amount may be.'
'Wouldn't it be better either to buy or build a life-boat?' Margery suggested. 'In a rough sea it would keep afloat longer than any larger craft and be much easier to manage. Besides, you could man a life-boat yourselves, whereas, if we charter a ship, we'd have to take on a crew and in the kind of upheaval that seems likely a crew might give us all sorts of trouble.'
Hemmingway looked at her with fresh interest. 'That's certainly a very sound idea, Miss Stapleton.'
'Margery, please,' she smiled. 'It's rather pointless to be formal with each other if we're going to sink or swim together.'
'Sure, Margery then, and I'm all for a life-boat. We'd get one of the very latest type, too, like they're making now in the States. It's not an ordinary boat at all, but a huge round ball with a platform circling its outside, just as the rings encircle the planet Saturn. In a very rough sea the ball can roll to practically any angle but, since it's water-tight once the doors are closed, it can't be swamped; and it can't be sunk except through a collision or being flung on the rocks. Meanwhile, the spherical chamber inside is kept level, however much the outer sphere rocks, by means of a system of gyroscopes.'
'That's right,' Roy added. 'I saw it on the movies in a news film when I was in Singapore.'
'It sounds the very thing, but is there time to import one?' Gervaise objected. 'Today is the 3rd of June, so we have only just over three weeks left to work in.'
Hemmingway stubbed out his cigarette. 'It's too late to ship one over but, if we hustle, I reckon we could build one.'
Oliver looked dubious. 'I don't see how, in such a limited time. Such a device must contain many scientific mechanisms, some of which are certain to be patents. Even if you could get permission, presumably there's no model in Britain from which you could have them copied. I doubt, too, if you could get the parts manufactured here.'