But they were undeceived. A quarter of a mile away, the earth heaved up. Further, it heaved up again. Durran took a terrible revenge for the attempt at resistance. When he left Poughkeepsie the shattered rains behind him were a guarantee that no other city would ever attempt the use of radioactive bullets against the Mole. The casualty list in Poughkeepsie was six times as large as that in Albany. It shocked the world.
Next day, the Mole made no foray. And it was a strange fact that since the complete ruthlessness of the earth-ship's crew had been demonstrated, fewer hysterical reports of its presence were made. At first, perhaps, those who fancied they saw it made haste to tell the police in hopes of its capture. Now, they simply fled. But there is no verified report of any activity on Durran's part the day after the Poughkeepsie tragedy.
The day after, it struck Peekskill and Yonkers. It was plainly heading for New York and such an orgy of looting as no five men in the world had ever before engaged in. Another day of peace.
Then it invaded Brooklyn by way of Harlem, evidently passing under the East River in its progress. A night and day of wholesale looting, with the police standing helplessly by and as their only effort at defence preventing crowds from gathering where they could be slaughtered.
That was an ironic touch; that the police were so far from being able to counter Durran's criminal actions that the utmost they could do was prevent him from being annoyed while engaged in robbery.
New York was still untouched. And then, after a day and a night of looting in Brooklyn, the motorman of a rush-hour Brooklyn subway express, slowing to a block signal in a tube under the river, saw the phantom, impossible apparition of the Mole lying across the tunnel. The only solid thing about it was the materializing tube Durran had invented and installed.
The motorman jammed on the air brakes and the cars behind him rilled with noise as the standing passengers piled up in heaps. Then something came out of the round ring of solidity held upright by the phantom Mole. Something which looked white and flat, with a long ribbon attached to it. A light glowed in the materializing ring and shone down upon the dropped object. It was an envelope, a letter.
A guard, his teeth chattering, climbed out of the front door and picked it up. It was addressed to the mayor of Greater New York. Shivering, he climbed back into the subway train.
The Mole stirred. The motorman and those crowded to the front windows of the train could see through it, beyond it. A round thing dribbled out of the materializing tube and fell between the rails. Then there was a little flare of eerie light and the materializing tube vanished. The Mole swam serenely away through the solid walls of the tunnel. It was lost in the unexplored solidity beneath the bed of the river.
Then the round thing on the track flashed up. Tear gas filled all the tunnel. But the subway train had to go forward. It could not go back. Filled with blinded, hysterical passengers, it pulled into the first station on the Brooklyn side and its motorman made a ragged stop, judging only by the glare that a station was at hand.
The newspapers published extras, after that. The letter was a bland communication from Durran. He was holding New York to ransom. He would smash the subways and bridges, blast down the tall buildings by planting explosives at their bases, and wreck the water and power supply of the city if his terms were not met. And his terms were staggering. He gave the city forty-eight hours in which to agree to them. And as if to give point to his threat, within an hour an alarm came from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Mole was there. When it left, it had seized enough high explosives to blast down half of New York.
It was not especially comforting to receive a reassuring broadcast from the American Electric Co. saying that a full dozen earth-ships, each faster, more powerful, and more heavily armed than the original Mole, would be completed in ten days more. In that ten days, Durran would have ruined the city.
VII
Of course they sent for Jack Hill. In the governor's mansion at Albany he met with the mayor of New York City, the governor of the State, and an array of financial and industrial magnates who would have been impressive if they had not been so thoroughly panic-stricken.
Gail Kennedy was there, too. She'd insisted on coming back with Jack, and she and her father - now backing Jack strongly - provided moral support for him in the atmosphere of embittered hatred that filled the meeting.
'This is your fault!' said the mayor of New York furiously. The American Electric Co. financed the highly unwise experiments which have led to this grave menace to our commonwealth, but you built the piratical craft which now holds -'
Jack interrupted gently: 'You're talking nonsense. It may be good politics, but it's poor policy. Do you want to know what you ought to do?'
'That is what we have come here for. How far are we going to avoid meeting these imp6ssible terms Durran imposes on our city?'
'Don't,' said Jack dryly. 'Pay him. You'll get it back.'
'How?'
'He can store only so much in the Mole.' replied Jack more dryly still. 'Even bank notes and bullion. As a matter of fact, bullion costs him money to carry around. My guess is that he's cached most of his loot, already. And my further guess is that the sweethearts of his four men have a pretty good idea where that cache is. When Durran and his men are killed - as they will be - those four women will spend some of it before they're caught, but not particularly much. Meanwhile, we gain time until the new earth-ships are finished.'
'But - millions and millions -' gasped a prominent banker.
'I have a suggestion to make,' said Jack gently, 'about the payment of that money. I will not make it in this mob' - even in such an emergency a rustle of indignation, a bristling, passed about the assembly - 'because I told an equally eminent group, some days ago, about a ship under construction to destroy the Mole. With really superlative fatheadedness, they told the world and consequently Durran. That ship was promptly blown up. So since you gentlemen can't be trusted to hold your tongues, I'll keep my own counsel until you've decided to meet Durran's terms. Then I'll communicate a suggestion to the person in charge of that payment. Not before!'
His idea was, of course, that bullion and even paper money could be so impregnated with radioactive material that when once taken on board the Mole it could not be moved through solidity and would expose the Mole to attack. A duplication, on a larger scale, of the incident of the radioactive bullets in Poughkeepsie.
'I might even,' Jack added sardonically, 'say that it's very possible that Durran knows where this meeting is taking place. If he does, and can make it here in time, we may be in a bad fix, anyhow, you and I and all of us.'
He swept his eyes about the gathering. Some of the faces looked frightened some looked indignant, but none looted guilty. Jack felt reassured, which was a mistake. He did not realize that the sort of man who blabs a secret never feels guilty for having blabbed it. He feels only frightened, sometimes, for fear that it may be found out he has blabbed.
And Jack did not quite realize how many men have their price. Bribery is of no service in scientific research, and Jack's mind simply did not work in a fashion to understand it either as a method or a temptation.
'But do you realize that we're at the mercy of a pirate?' wailed a prominent Wall Street banker. 'Every cent -'
'With the warning you've had,' Jack broke in, 'I rather suspect you've shipped most of your valuables out of the city. At a guess, Durran's been in a couple of bank vaults and found them practically empty. Hence this holdup.'