Beyond the Vanishing Point

of an atom of gold, beyond the vanishing point, beyond the range of even the highest-powered electric-microscope. My name is George Ra

cal exchange call-sorter announc

ot to come up here at once. Chateau

irror on my desk; the anxiety, tenseness in

-" I

. Babs and I need

Barbara were my best friends. They were twins, eighteen years old. I felt that Alan would always be my best friend; but

to come, A

verything over the public air. But I've s

mean, of all the

y! I didn't want to tell you, but that's why we came

n them. And his voice too. "God, George, it's weird! Weird, I

ing and went. By one o'clock that afternoon I was wheeling my little sport Mid

undred and fifty miles at first, taking the northbound through-traffic lane wh

engrossing for thought of Alan and Babs. But now, in my little pit at the controls, my mind flung ahead. They had located him. Tha

teen at the time, and I was seventeen. Even then Babs was something kind of sp

a housekeeper and no other servant. Dr. Kent was a retired chemist. He had, in his home, a laboratory in which he was working upon some mysterious problem. His chil

he loved them, and was indulgent in many ways. They loved him; and I, an orphan, began looking upon him almost

only other member of the household was a young fellow of twenty-five, named Franz Polter. He was a foreigner, b

ve. A hunchback, with a short, thick body; dangling arms that suggested a gorilla; barrel chest; a lump set askew on his left shoulder, and his massive head planted down with almost no

There was always something sinister about hi

er back, bare-legged and short-skirted in a summer sport costume, was standing against the tree with Polter facing her. They were

m suddenly. I h

ou are almos' a woman

her shoulder. She tried to twist awa

ou're

im. I dashed forward. Babs was always a spunky sort of girl. In

go, you-yo

at seventeen I was a reasonably husky lad, the hunchback with his thick, hairy gorilla arms proved much stronger. He heaved me off. The commotion had brought Alan and without wai

I was standing silently nearby with Babs and Alan. The look he flung us as he drove away carried an unmistakable menace-the promise of vengeance.

n his desk in a corner of the laboratory next morning, addressed in care of the family lawyer to be given Alan in the event of his death. It said very little. Described a tiny fragment of gold quar

Through one of its open windows, so the police said, an intruder had entered. There was evidence of a struggle, but it must have been sh

stood the police questions. There was nothing except suspicion upon which he co

Alan told me that Polter was up there! We had never ceased to believe that Dr. Kent was alive, and that Polter was the midnight marauder. As we grew older, w

emories. My buzzer was clanging; a peremptory halting signal day-beam came

etails in one breath. Above everything I had no wish to be h

ector roared. "Come down to thr

re, like that, young fellow-" But he went busy with

the gathering darkness. I passed the City of Jackman, crossing full over it to take no chances of annoying the border officials; and a few miles furthe

oherent. He waved his taxiplane away. "I'm going with you, George. I'm almost

gone?

bed in after me. "Don't talk. Get us up! I

I swung on him. "What are yo

f shuddering with

uebec police think I am, anyway. I've been raising hell with them fo

Babs. They had had lunch in the huge hotel and then walked on the Dufferin Terrace-the famous promenade outside lookin

didn't come. I went back to the Terrace but she was gone. S

and several hundred holiday merrymakers, a young girl could hardly be murdered, or kidnapped, without attracting attention! The Quebec police thought the young American unduly exci

, I felt differently. "She'll be waiting f

here-not thirty miles from Quebec. We saw him on the Terra

he se

did know him, as Frank Rascor. That must be the name he wears now. He's a famous man up here-well known, i

wn its middle. Night had almost come. The leaden sky was low above us. It began

land us

ld just beyond the Citadel. We can

productive mine of gold. It was an anomaly that gold should be produced in this region. No vein of gold-bearing rock had been found, except the one on Polter's property. Alan had seen a newspaper acc

microscope? We always thought so. Dr. Kent had some secret, some great problem upon which he was working. Polter, his assistant, had evidently known, or pa

, I knew, was groping with a dim idea

ter-heavens, one couldn't mistake that build-and his f

s so weird?

s four years ago. But he isn't twenty-nine now. I swear it is the same man, but he isn't around thirty. Don't ask me what I'm talking abou

Beyond the City cliffs, the St. Lawrence lay in its deep valley; the Quebec lights, the ligh

now where the field is. And don't you w

ch Alan and Babs had engaged. We inquired with half a dozen phone calls. No one ha

window in Babs' room; he was trembling too much to use the phone. I

on the large bed. A velvet boudoir doll-she had always loved them-stood on the dresser. Upon this Hote

ok." In his hand was an ugly-looking, smokeless, soundless automatic of

t his hands had steadied. The tr

s from here, out there in the mountains. You can see it in the daylight-a wall around

e snow-filled darkness, the blurred lights of Lower Quebe

u fly me

cour

seemed suddenly to crystallize Babs' peril. I was here in her room, with the scent of her p

she was wearing. No sense dragging Polter's name into it, with nothing tangible to go on. The police won't ransack the

e air. The wind sucked at us. The snow now was falling with thick, huge flakes. Directed by Alan, I headed out

re meaningless when I was a kid. He invented the electro-microscope. You know that. The infinitely small fascinate

areful of contained a world with human inhabitants! Father knew it, or suspected it. And I think the chemical problem on which he was working aimed for some drug. I know it

es of a puzzle, dropping so easily into place when the key piece is fitted, I saw Polter stealing that fragment of gold; abducting Dr. Kent-perhaps because Pol

me shud

ine, it's a laboratory! He's got father too, hidden God knows where! And now Babs. We've got to get th