THE PEOPLE OF THE COMET
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discharge. And that is where I made my mistake.
“ 'I was now approaching the line of the last square upon the chart. The comet had passed out of the visual stage and into that of immensity; before me was nothing but a sheer wall of red living flame. It was immense, dazzling, whirling; a pulsation of infinite, inconceivable forces, a blinding sea of omnipotent currents, centered into a vast hell-burning whirlpool. I was like an insect flying, head on, into the face of the sun.
“ 'When I had crossed the last thousand-mile line I opened the discharge and let out the current. And that was my mistake!
“ 'The next instant was one blinding, whirling, shuttle of confusion. It was like a thunderbolt, with the ether ship rolling without rudder or guidance, straight into the head of the comet. In the flash of that instant I can remember only a feeling of red, blazing helplessness and terror; there was a roar that outdid all thunder—the crashing and booming of terrific explosions, like the Universe splitting to pieces. I had released the wrong current and had been drawn straight into the comet!
“ 'Thank the Lord for the flight of thought and reflex action!
“ 'In that one second my mind and body knew what had happened. Though I was helpless, my trained hand did just the thing that saved me. The contrary switch was thrown. The next instant I was clear of the comet. I had made the mistake of trusting to luck and throwing out the wrong current: had I not reversed the switch and loosened a negative current I would surely have been destroyed. Though the walls of the ether ship were built of non-conducting material and were impervious to almost any extreme of heat and cold, I would not have lasted long inside that terrible coma. As it was I was thrown thousands of miles out of the comet. When I recovered my equilibrium the ether ship was sailing along like a fly in a course parallel to that of the coma.
“ 'I had made a great discovery. I know now beyond all doubt, that the coma of a comet is electrical, that its light is caused by the visual discharge of electricity, coming, undoubtedly, from the nucleus.
“ ‘For a while I sailed along with the comet. The atomic engines were working perfectly, and the anti-gravitational current was just as effective as it had been upon the Earth. I was at right angles to the comet, and just us independent as I would have been millions of miles away. The controls were accurate.
“ 'By the chart I could now see that I was traveling alongside the center of the gigantic coma. The whole Universe seemed to be painted in boiling flame. It was terrible to behold—and fascinating. It pulsed and vibrated, and rolled into billows of falling fire. It was alive, as if fed from within; and at every moment it broke into cataclysms of curdling blood-red brilliancy.
“ 'For an hour I drove the ether ship along the edge of the coma, gathering data that I would make use of when back upon the Earth,
“ 'I had proved my theory concerning the head of the comet. It was a ball of transparent light, transparent at a distance, but at close quarters brilliant beyond all imagination. It was electrical—the light o factive ions moving at terrible speed—not the speed of electrical current alone, but that of a vast consolidated body—a cometary knot of force.
“ 'And yet it was not, as I had maintained, entirely harmless. I could say definitely now, that, should the head of a comet ever strike the Earth it would mean the end. Since the beginning of science our astronomers had been speculating upon the result of such a collision, some holding one view and some another. The Earth had passed several times through the tail of a comet without being harmed; there were some who held that it would be the same with the coma, or head. The nucleus was the only part that they feared.
“ 'There lay the secret. Through telescopes I had watched the nucleus shoot jets and great concentric rings of light into the coma. If the head of the comet were electrical—the effect of these discharges—what was the nucleus? Whatever the comet might be, there was no one yet who had ever advanced a theory that held the weight of probability. The nucleus was the heart of the comet. I would solve its secret.
“ 'To do this I had to fall back along the head of the comet until I came to the tail, of which I was not afraid because I had known from the beginning that it is nothing but a passage of weird, uncanny light. I intended to dart straight through it and sail toward the nucleus. What I would do then would depend upon circumstance.
“ 'There was a good chance for my destruction. Nevertheless my mishap with the coma had increased rather than diminished my ardor. I had confidence and I had, most of all, a feeling that destiny would protect me.
“ 'I eased up on the engines, held the controls, and waited while the red sea of force sailed by me. On the chart I could watch the green dot of the ether ship receding across the face of the comet. Thousands of miles! It was an expectant moment.
“The comet looked to be a few feet away; and yet I knew that it was thousands of miles from the ether ship. It was boiling crimson, cataclysmic. Never was there a thing so terrible, nor a man so fascinated. I intended to wait for the moment and then plunge into its heart.
“ 'At last the coma had passed, and I knew by the chart that I had come to the tail. The intense light grew dimmer, and, though still a bright crimson, semi-transparent. After a bit I caught a glimpse of the nucleus gleaming like a ruby or violent coal directly behind the coma. It was red as blood, burning like the ruby light of a burning volcano. It was small compared to the rest of the comet, but of such an intensity that against its light the rest was as shadow. Red is a terrible color; but this red had the terror of hell!
“ 'It seemed to be living; like the evil eye of some magnetic devil, winking, blinking, and shooting red fire into the onrushing coma. Great wreaths of hot splendor shot out from its rim, one upon another, a whirling, blinding, dazzle of spasmodic ascending glory.
“ 'When well alongside, I speeded up the engines and turned straight in. I was not afraid of the tail; but I was going to take no great chance with the nucleus. It was too terrible—super-dynamic. If I could get close enough to see what it was like, I would be satisfied.
“ 'The tail proved to be just what I expected. It was merely a trail of harmless light, through which the ether ship passed without a bit of inconvenience. If it has substance, the density of a comet’s tail is so slight that one could condense a million miles into a handful. In a few minutes I was nearing the heart of the comet.
“ 'I was careful now. Instead of rushing straight in, I approached by a cautions, circular route; that is, I circled to the rear of the nucleus, and then reversed and repeated the movement, always drawing closer. I found that it was small and that, instead of being massive, it was, when compared with the rest of the comet, not more than a mere dot. It could not have been more than one hundred miles in diameter, circular, and surrounded by a red band of intense color. I discovered that from the rear it was apparently harmless.
“ 'I sailed up close. Then,taking courage, I drove the ether ship alongside where I could get a good view of the discharges that burst from the nucleus.
