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    Four Miles Within
    Four Miles Within
    Four Miles Within
    Ebook60 pages51 minutes

    Four Miles Within

    By Anthony Gilmore

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    About this ebook

    Far down into the earth goes a gleaming metal sphere whose passengers are deadly enemies.

    Excerpt

    A strange spherical monster stood in the moonlight on the silent Mojave Desert. In the ghostly gray of the sand and sage and Joshua trees its metal hide glimmered dully-an amazing object to be found on that lonely spot. But there was only pride and anticipation in the eyes of the three people who stood a little way off, looking at it. For they had constructed the strange sphere, and were soon going to entrust their lives to it.

    "Professor," said one of them, a young man with a cheerful face and a likable grin, "let's go down now! There's no use waiting till to-morrow. It's always dark down there, whether it's day or night up here. Everything is ready."

    The white-haired Professor David Guinness smiled tolerantly at the speaker, his partner, Phil Holmes. "I'm kind of eager to be off, myself," he admitted. He turned to the third person in the little group, a dark-haired girl. "What do you say, Sue?"

    "Oh, let's, Father!" came the quick reply. "We'd never be able to sleep to-night, anyway. As Phil says, everything is ready."

    "Well, I guess that settles it," Professor Guinness said to the eager young man.

    Phil Holmes' face went aglow with anticipation. "Good!" he cried. "Good! I'll skip over and get some water. It's barely possible that it'll be hot down there, in spite of your eloquent logic to the contrary!" And with the words he caught up a large jug standing nearby, waved his hand, said: "I'll be right back!" and set out for the water-hole, situated nearly a mile away from their little camp. The heavy hush of the desert night settled down once more after he left.

    As his figure merged with the shadows in the distance, the elderly scientist murmured aloud to his daughter: "You know, it's good to realize that my dream is about to become a reality. If it hadn't been for Phil.... Or no-I really ought to thank you, Sue. You're the one responsible for his participation!" And he smiled fondly at the slender girl by his side.

    "Phil joined us just for the scientific interest, and for the thrill of going four miles down into the earth," she retorted at once, in spite of the blush her father saw on her face. But he did not insist. Once more he turned, as to a magnet, to the machine that was his handiwork.

    The fifteen-foot sphere was an earth-borer-Guinness's own invention. In it he had utilized for the first time for boring purposes the newly developed atomic disintegrators. Many holes equally spaced over the sphere were the outlets for the dissolving ray-most of them on the bottom and alternating with them on the bottom and sides were the outlets of powerful rocket propulsion tubes, which would enable it to rise easily from the hole it would presently blast into the earth. A small, tight-fitting door gave entrance to the double-walled interior, where, in spite of the space taken up by batteries and mechanisms and an enclosed gyroscope for keeping the borer on an even keel, there was room for several people.

    The earth-borer had been designed not so much for scientific investigation as the specific purpose of reaching a rich store of radium ore buried four miles below the Guinness desert camp. Many geologists and mining engineers knew that the radium was there, for their instruments had proven it often; but no one up to then knew how to get to it. David Guinness did-first. The borer had been constructed in his laboratory in San Francisco, then dismantled and freighted to the little desert town of Palmdale, from whence Holmes had brought the parts to their isolated camp by truck. Strict secrecy had been kept. Rather than risk assistants they had done all the work themselves.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXinXii
    Release dateNov 27, 2015
    ISBN9781612100289
    Four Miles Within

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      Book preview

      Four Miles Within - Anthony Gilmore

      Four Miles Within

      By Anthony Gilmore

      Copyright ©April 1931 Anthony Gilmore
      This edition published in 2010 by eStar Books, LLC.
      www.estarbooks.com

      ISBN:    978-1-61210-028-9

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      Other works by Harry Bates (Anthony Gilmore)

      Hawk Carse series (as Anthony Gilmore)

      Hawk Carse  with Desmond W. Hall 

      The Affair of the Brains  with  Desmond W. Hall 

      The Bluff of the Hawk  with  Desmond W. Hall 

      The Passing of Ku Sui  with  Desmond W. Hall 

      The Return of Hawk Carse  with  Desmond W. Hall 

      The City of Eric  written (as  ¿Quien Sabe?) 

      The Tentacles from Below  with  Desmond W. Hall (as Anthony Gilmore) 

      Four Miles Within  with  Desmond W. Hall (as Anthony Gilmore) 

      The Hands of Aten  with  Desmond W. Hall (as H. G. Winter)

      The Slave Ship from Space ( as A.R. Holmes )

      The Midget from the Island  with  Desmond W. Hall (as H. G. Winter)

      Seed of the Arctic Ice  with  Desmond W. Hall  (as H.G. Winter) 

      A Scientist Rises  with  Desmond W. Hall 

      Under Arctic Ice  with  Desmond W. Hall  (as  H. G. Winter)

      The Coffin Ship  with  Desmond W. Hall  (as Anthony Gilmore)

      A Matter of Size

      Alas, All Thinking!

      The Experiment of Dr. Sarconi

      Farewell to the Master

      A Matter of Speed

      Mystery of the Blue God

      Death of a Sensitive

      The Triggered Dimension

      Four Miles Within

      A COMPLETE NOVELETTE

      By Anthony Gilmore

      CHAPTER I

      The Monster of Metal

      A  strange spherical monster stood in the moonlight on the silent Mojave Desert. In the ghostly gray of the sand and sage and Joshua trees its metal hide glimmered dully—an amazing object to be found on that lonely spot. But there was only pride and anticipation in the eyes of the three people who stood a little way off, looking at it. For they had constructed the strange sphere, and were soon going to entrust their lives to it.

      Professor, said one of them, a young man with a cheerful face and a likable grin, let's go down now! There's no use waiting till to-morrow. It's always dark down there, whether it's day or night up here. Everything is ready.

      The white-haired Professor David Guinness smiled tolerantly at the speaker, his partner, Phil Holmes. I'm kind of eager to be off, myself, he admitted. He turned to the third person in the little group, a dark-haired girl. What do you say, Sue?

      Oh, let's, Father! came the quick reply. We'd never be able to sleep to-night, anyway. As Phil says, everything is ready.

      Well, I guess that settles it, Professor Guinness said to the eager young man.

      Phil Holmes' face went aglow with anticipation. Good! he cried. Good! I'll skip over and get some water. It's barely possible that it'll be hot down there, in spite of your eloquent logic to the contrary! And with the words he caught up a large jug standing nearby, waved his hand, said: I'll be right back! and set out for the water-hole, situated nearly a mile away from their little camp. The heavy hush of the desert night settled down once more after he left.

      As his figure merged with the shadows in the distance, the elderly scientist murmured aloud to his daughter:

      You know, it's good to realize that my dream is about to become a reality. If it hadn't been for Phil.... Or no—I really ought to thank you, Sue. You're the one responsible for his participation! And he smiled fondly at the slender girl by his side.

      Phil joined us just for the scientific interest, and for the thrill of going four miles down into the earth, she retorted at once, in spite of the blush her father saw on her face. But he did not insist. Once more he turned, as to a magnet, to the machine that was his handiwork.

      The fifteen-foot sphere was an earth-borer—Guinness's own invention. In it he had utilized for the first time for boring purposes the newly developed atomic disintegrators.

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