Under the desert stars

by Frank Koester

Volcanoes, long thought to have been extinct, suddenly came to life, belching forth numerous pillars of ashes, smoke and molten lava. On the western coast of North America a great earthquake took place, throwing up a range of mountains thousands of feet high, accompanied by untold loss of life and property. So frequent and great were the earthquakes that shook the globe that it was feared by the learned men the world over that the world would be literally shattered to pieces. Large bodies of water, which had accumulated in the Sahara, seeped through the dry sand into the hot bowels of the earth, where the water was converted into steam and under high pressure caused the eruption and explosion of numerous volcanoes.

Ocean steamers fortunate enough to avoid the great icebergs that were daily gathering their toll of life or the terrible waterspouts that occurred in every part of the sea would not respond to the compass. Their masters reported that the needles pointed far away from what had been north. The earth had been thrown out of balance! This explained to some extent the change of climate the world over. Lands that had been in equatorial regions were thrown north or south with regard to their position in relation to the sun.

The saying of Archimedes, “Give me a fulcrum and I will move the earth,” had come true. But instead of a lever and fulcrum, a counter ballast of water, flooding the Sahara, had done the work.

Scientists began to speculate as to the course the earth would follow in its yearly movement around the sun. By comparative astronomical measurements it was established that the earth was following a path greatly deflected from its former orbit, while other planets flouted the rules as to orbits and behaved more like comets. Would the earth now collide with other planets, was the question on everyone’s lips. All the fixed “rules of thumb” the astronomers used had to be discarded for new calculations and guesswork.

And the earth was traveling through unknown space at a speed of six hundred and sixty-six thousand miles an hour!

Then came the age of darkness! The millions of tons of dust and ashes thrown into the heavens from the hundreds of erupting volcanoes, traveling with the winds of the earth, formed a heavy film through which the rays of the sun could barely penetrate. The air grew cold; blizzards were ever more frequent and severe; gradually the earth was sheathed in a covering of ice.

But through the darkness there came a light, growing brighter and brighter as the days went by.

Astronomers reported that this strange light came from an unknown comet traveling at great speed toward the earth. As time passed the entire horizon was illuminated by this strange visitor. The light became brighter and more intense than that of the hottest sun. And nearer and nearer it came to the earth!

All over the world anxious eyes watched the comet night and day. Was the end of the world at hand? The most irreligious people spent days and nights in prayer. Nations set prayer-days to save the world from destruction. People lost their reason and wandered around helplessly and aimlessly, until maddened entirely they took their lives.

A poisonous gas swept over the face of the earth. Chemists and scientists alike were baffled in their attempts to analyze it. Was it caused by the passing of the world through one of the nebulae, which long had been regarded as composed of dangerous gases? Or could it be that the comet now speeding toward them was discharging these gases? They could find no answer.