"Get hold of my coat," his voice came to the others. "We're going to
climb."
Accordingly they climbed, in silence, up many flights of stairs, through
the cloying darkness. At last Darrow halted, turned sharp to the left,
fumbled for a door, and entered a room.
"Simmons?" he said.
"Here!" came a voice.
"I thought you'd be on the job," said Darrow, with satisfaction. "How's
your instrument? Going, eh? We are in the wireless offices," he told the
others. "Sit down, if you can find chairs. We'll wait until the sun is
shining brightly, love, before we really try to get down to business. In
the meantime--"
"In the meantime--" repeated both Jack and Hallowell, in a breath. "Go on,
my son," conceded the latter. "I bet we have the same idea."
"Well, I was going to say that I'm not in the grammar-school physics
class, and I want to know what you meant by your remark to Eldridge," said
Jack.
"That's my trouble," said Hallowell.
"It's simple enough," began Darrow. "We have had, first, a failure of
all electricity; second, a failure of all sound; third, a failure of
all light. The logical mind would therefore examine these things to see
what they have in common. The answer simply jumps at you: _Vibration_.
Electricity and light are vibrations in ether; sound is vibration in
air or some solid. Therefore, whatever could absolutely stop vibration
would necessarily stop electricity, light and sound.
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