“The cable was so injured where it had been wound up that they were afraid it would break if they loosened it, and so they concluded to make a new one. There did not seem to be any great hurry about it, and so it dragged along for four years without much being done. By that time almost 700 miles of cable had been wound up and Deimos had been drawn up that much nearer to Mars. Some thought this a good thing and proposed to let him wind himself down within a hundred miles or so of Mars, so that he would be of some account as a moon, for he gave very little light where he was. Others wanted him pulled down to the ground so they could cut him up and get the gold, silver, iron and other valuables he might contain; enough they said to make all the Martians rich. But the more prudent pointed out that if he was pulled down too far he would interfere with Lucy Phobos and spoil her work. It had been observed that the cable had been getting slower and slower and was now moving only a little more than half as fast as it did at first, and the industries depending on it were getting short of power. The mathematicians figured that Deimos would never wind himself up any closer than 12,700 miles or 1,847 miles from where he was in the first place, for the reason that drawing him in towards Mars increased his speed so that when he was wound up to 12,700 miles he would revolve around the planet in 24 hours and 40 minutes, the same time it takes Mars to roll over. Consequently Deimos would appear to stand over the same spot all the time, the cable would cease to move and the winding up process would stop, and of course all the machinery connected with it would stop too. After a full discussion of the matter, it was concluded to let Deimos get back to his original orbit, so that the manufacturing that had been started and was operated by the power furnished by the cable might not suffer any further loss.
The New Cable.
“The new cable was run up alongside of the old and the upper end fastened to Deimos while the eye in the lower end was placed over the shaft. The cable was then deprived of weight and the 700 miles of slack floated about in space like a big cobweb. It was now supposed that if the old cable was cut Deimos would rapidly move out to his old position. But he did nothing of the kind. He seemed to be satisfied with his new route, and for several months he persistently kept on without getting any further away, his slack cable sagging out behind. They now undertook to compel him, and they succeeded in this way. They gave the cable full weight repulsion. This caused it to straighten out upward, and the slack went on up 350 miles above Deimos curving back to him. The whole thing looked like a fish pole and line with Deimos dangling at the end of it. It had the desired effect, however, for its strain upward exerted considerable power on Deimos disturbing the equilibrium that had been established between the centripetal and centrifugal forces that controlled his motion. It took about two years, however, to get him back to his old route. He was tipped over twice in the process, on account of the cable having been fastened on the underside; first while the loop of the cable was above it, and second when it got out to the end of the cable it was canted back again.”
“It was a funny experience, the little moon had,” I observed. “I suppose it got down to its former gait so as to allow of the old retrograde speed of cable at the Mars end?”
“Yes of course, the speed of Deimos decreased with its distance from Mars. It has occurred to them since, that they ought to have had a still longer cable, so as to have got him still further off with a still slower movement. They would have got more power by it.
“The last time I was on Mars a remarkable circumstance took place that I shall never forget. I was one of a party that accompanied the King on a visit to the pole to inspect the plant and view the landscape. From this lofty elevation the view is charming, and there is also a strange fascination in watching the solemn revolution of the great cable moving with the deliberation and precise regularity of the hour hand of some enormous time piece. There is a little cabin built over the shaft at the pole which revolves with the cable. The man whose business it is to oil the shaft constantly stays in that cabin, and even sleeps there. While we were admiring the view we suddenly heard a scream from the man in the cabin. The eye of the cable is oval and is not filled by the shaft at its inside end. Upon rushing into the cabin we found the unfortunate man had been asleep and allowed one of his feet to drop into this space and it had been slowly drawn in between the cable and the shaft until it was so fastened that he could not pull it out with the most frantic exertions, and every minute took it further crushing as it went. At last the man called for an ax, and it was handed to him, when without a moment’s hesitation, with two or three strokes he severed his leg just above the knee. I was terribly shocked, but the poor man made light of it, and declared he would have another leg in its place as good as that one in five months. Less than two weeks afterwards I saw him and his leg had already started to grow out and in five months he was walking on it the same as the others.”
“That was remarkable,” said I, “but it is said the star fishes on earth—what! are you going?”
The professor during his talk had been arranging his car, a process I had been endeavoring to keep the run of without losing his conversation. He had erected a cab or house over the lower part or body of it, had fastened it down with a sort of clamps, that appeared to make the joints air tight, leaving open a small door on one side. The material of this cab was a thick leathery substance, evidently very tough and stiff and very transparent. He had also an instrument that I directly perceived was an air pump, for he used it in pumping air into a number of flasks—those that he had emptied, I suppose, on his trip down from the moon. As he filled them he placed them inside of the cab and having walked around and carefully inspected everything to his satisfaction, he paused and turned his great benignant eyes upon me in a hesitating manner that seemed to say that he had something more to tell me which nevertheless he hesitated to communicate. After a few moments he overcame his scruples if he had any, and reaching into one of his middle pockets he brought forth a thin piece of stuff resembling parchment covered on both sides by an adhesive substance like that used on postage stamps. In shape it was like the moon at its first quarter. He pressed this piece against his forehead and left it sticking there for only a moment then handed it to me with a gesture that appeared to indicate that I should press it against mine. I did this, but it did not stick and there came into my head a very strange and muddled sensation not unlike a headache. I pulled it off. The Professor was looking at me and evidently perceived my trouble, for he directed me by a gesture to turn it over. The effect of this was as wonderful as it was agreeable. The Professor seemed to me to be talking through a telephone and while I could not say that I understood him any better than by his usual method, it was, to me, a new method, and disclosed new faculties and possibilities showing in a new light the genius and versatility of this wonderful race.
The information that he chose this novel way of communicating to me, related to the rumor in circulation in Mars as stated sometime back, that a company of speculators made up of Lunarians and extensive promotors living on the Earth were actually planning to impose a new orbit on Mars and had so far progressed with the scheme, that the stock was all subscribed. It was understood the Lunarians were to do the actual work; in fact it was conceded that they were the only people in the solar system that possessed a plant at all commensurate with the magnitude of the undertaking or were sufficiently skilled or experienced to handle it. The Lunarians were too shrewd or wary to undertake such a contract without assuring themselves of their ability to perform it. It was to inform themselves on this point, that the Professor had agreed to make the long trip to Mars directly after his return to the Moon. This was a larger undertaking than they had yet attempted. They understood perfectly the mathematical principles, involved, but the very immensity of the apparatus required to be used and handled made an appalling task, and yet they declared if they could do it at all, they could do it easily. They relied of course on their great secret—the repulsion of gravitation.
The great scheme was therefore not the hoax they were willing to have the general public believe it to be, but a well considered project, by some of the most astute financiers and physicists in the solar system. The following are some of the principal names and firms enlisted in the enterprise. U. L. & V; J. Y. & Co., K. G. Q.; A. W. Z. & Sons; H. O. & Co.; R. H. R. Sons and Co.; M. D. C. C. C.; J. X. & J.; I. & P.; D. J. & N.; L. H. I. & F.; N. B.; S. I. & Co.; C. M. & Co.; R. T. & X.; C. E. The timidity of capital is notorious; likewise its gullibility and therefore its instinct for secrecy and slyness. But the above array of names is an ample guaranty against trifling.