Page:Weird Tales v33n05 (1939-05).djvu/22
with the sequel as told to the press by many and diverse reporters, into the field of Earth's magnetic attraction.
To take up the only phase of the affair on which Sydney makes no comment, since he himself has learned of it only through the accounts of others:
On the night of August 30th, three urgent communications were received by groups of spiritualists holding meetings at the three largest Pacific Coast ports of the United States: Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. These communications were beyond all precedent, according to those attending these widely separated seances, urgent and clear. They purported to be given by one who called himself Kerry Dorn; they gave a specific latitude and longitude in the South Pacific Ocean, and urged that rescue parties be sent there with all haste for the rescue of Mrs. Valerie Dorn, the widow of Kerry Dorn; Michael Sydney, explorer; and possibly Arthur K. and Lisa Gibbs.
So unusual and insistent were the communications, given in one case by rappings, in another by trance mediumship and in a third by what was claimed to be a partially materialized control speaking for Kerry Dorn from the "other world," that long-distance telephone calls were exchanged between the three spiritualistic societies. Before morning these were supplemented by hasty investigations which established the truth as to identity of the relationship between Valerie and Kerry Dorn, and also the protracted absence of such a party as was described on the sailing-yacht of Arthur K. Gibbs, owner.
The Coast Guard was appealed to, and declined to take action. However, one of the members of the group in Seattle was very wealthy, and a partner in a shipping concern, and before noon the next day managed to have a fast steam yacht dispatched to the latitude and longitude given in the three diversely received messages.
The result of this expedition has been widely read and lightly credited. This is because we simply do not believe things we are not prepared to believe. Even I, John Graham, editor of The Investigator, offer no personal opinion.
But the evidence of all on board the rescue ship is as follows:
On arriving at the given latitude and longitude, at a point in the South Pacific, all on board were amazed to see two small icebergs floating in the warm waters of the sea, not far from each other. On investigation it was found that within each iceberg, frozen in the center, were a couple—a man and woman, clinging to each other, and having on their faces expressions of utter terror.
The ice was gently and carefully dripped and melted by artificial heat, supplementing the action of the sun and warm Pacific water, which had already acted upon it, of course. The man and woman encased in each iceberg were carefully removed to the deck of the Northbound, and watched with the closest anxiety. After a little, life returned to the apparently inanimate corpses. All four were perfectly rational, and exhibited in the beginning a delirious joy at finding themselves on the yacht Northbound, and immediately afterward an intense desire to relate the events detailed in Sydney's manuscript—in every point of which the four agree. The identity of the four was of course easily established.
This practically completes the case, except for one very interesting detail. While melting away the ice encasing Sydney and Valerie Dorn, the flat gin bottle containing the manuscript, just as he had thrown it before him into the geyser of air, was taken out; hence the foregoing is not furnished by Michael Sydney from memory, but is verbatim his diary as recorded from time to time during the "moon journey," the shipwreck, and the sojourn on the moon and flight from Le Noir's space-ship.