Page:Weird Tales Volume 8 Number 3 (1926-09).djvu/20

It was very quiet in the big observatory. High up amid the peaks of the Coast Range, no sound from outside could he heard but the whispering of the night wind, and inside, only an occasional rustling movement of the man at the telescope, who was the room's single occupant. From time to time there was a clashing of smooth metal surfaces, as he manipulated the intricate mechanism that supported and swung the great tube.

Suddenly he rose to his feet and walked across the dark room to a desk in an alcove, where he snapped on a shaded light. Seen by its indirect glow, he was an unimpressive figure, short, plump and bald, but with keen blue eyes that searched the surface of the desk impatiently for some object that eluded his gaze.

After a moment he uttered a slight grunt of satisfaction and pulled a sheet of calculations from under a mass of papers that had hidden it from view. As he studied this, pencil in hand, a look of annoyance appeared on his face, soon fading into a perplexed expression. For some minutes he examined the sheet of figures, then, with a dawning excitement, turned off the light and hurried over to the telescope, making new adjustments to its controlling machinery. And when he again took up his position of observation at the eyepiece, a low exclamation broke from him.

For more than an hour he continued to peer through the telescope, and for another hour sat at the desk, covering the surface of a pad with computations, and referring now and then to a thick book of astronomical tables that lay beside him. When he finally laid down the pencil, he pulled his chin for a moment in meditation, then reached for the telephone and gave a number.

"Hello—Williams?" he spoke into the instrument. "Here's something for your paper. Important? Well,