Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Astounding StoriesOctober 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence thatthe U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Pistol in hand, the two men watched the oncoming lights.
The Solar Magnet
By Capt. S. P. Meek
Another episode in Dr. Bird's long scientific duel with hiscountry's arch-enemy, Saranoff.
The milling crowd in front of the Capitol suddenly grew quiet. A tallportly figure came out onto the porch of the building and stepped beforea microphone erected on the steps. A battery of press cameras clicked. Anewsreel photographer ground away on his machine. Wild cheers rent theair. The President held up his hand for silence. As the cheering diedaway he spoke into the microphone.
"My countrymen," he said, "the Congress of the United States has met inextraordinary session and is ready to cope with the condition withwhich we are confronted. While they deliberate as to the steps to betaken, it is essential that you meet this danger, if it be a danger,with the bravery and the calm front which has always characterized thepeople of the United States in times of trial and danger. You may restassured—"
A slightly built, inconspicuous man who had followed the President outonto the porch was surveying the crowd intently. He turned and spoke inan undertone to a second man who mysteriously appeared from nowhere asthe first man spoke. He listened for a moment, nodded, and edged closerto the President. The first man slipped unobtrusively down the Capitolsteps and mingled with the crowd.
"—that no steps will be neglected which may prove of value," went onthe President. "The greatest scientists of the country have gathered inthis city in conference and they undoubtedly will soon find a simple andnatural explanation for what is happening. In the meantime—"
The President paused. From the crowd in front of him came a suddendisturbance. A man sprang free of the crowd and broke through therestraining cordon of police. In his hand gleamed an ugly blue steelautomatic pistol. Quickly he leveled it and fired. A puff of dust camefrom the Capitol. The bullet had landed a few inches from one of thelower windows, fifty feet from where the President stood. He raised hisweapon for a second shot but it was never fired. The man who had comedown the Capitol steps sprang forward like a cat and grasped the weapon.For a moment the two men struggled, but only for a moment. From thecrowd, stunned for a moment by the sheer audacity of the attack, came aroar of rage. The police closed in about the struggling men but thecrowd rolled over them like a wave. The captor shouted his identity andtried to display the gold badge of the secret service but the mob wasin no state of mind to listen. The police were trampled underfoot andthe would-be assassin torn from the hands of the secret serviceoperative. Every man in reach tried to strike a blow. The secret serviceman was buffeted and thrown aside. Realizing that the affair had beentaken out of his hands, he made his way to the rear of the Capitol wherehis badge gained him ready passage through the cordon of police. Heentered the building and reappeared in a few moments by the side of thePresident.
Two hours later he leaned forward in his chair in Dr. Bird's privatelaboratory in the Bureau of Standards and spoke earnestly.
"Dr. Bird," he said, "that bullet was never meant for the President.That man was after bigger game."
The famous