Into the mysterious South Pacific Ocean sailed the magnificent yacht of Mrs. Patricia Gregory. Captain Tex Bradford, her business manager, and young Jerry Hall, went with her in search of Mrs. Gregory's little daughter, Joan. The Gregory yacht is now held to the strange Isle of Euclidia, and all on board are prisoners of G-47 and his colony of scientists. Joan has spent her first night on board the yacht, away from the weird scientists who have raised her in ignorance of the outside world. The Gregory party is just leaving the yacht for their first daylight view of the island. Well, the island looks a lot different in the daylight. Everything sparkles just as if it had been polished. Does someone have to shine that stuff all the time, Joan? No, Jerry. The whole surface of the island, except the stone we are walking on, is made of some metal that never tarnishes. These buildings have looked exactly the same as long as I can remember, and they are never touched. It certainly is an island of wonders, even if they are terrible wonders. They won't be so terrible when we get back to our world with them. I'm afraid, Captain Bradford, that will never be done. Have there been many prisoners like ourselves, dear? A great many, and those who tried to escape are nowhere now. Gee, didn't they all try to escape? Oh, no. Most of the Euclideans started as prisoners, but they are as bad as the scientists now. I can't imagine anyone wanting to become a party to the scientific horrors being created here. What could the scientists offer these prisoners as a reward for staying and working with them? I've heard some of them talking, and most of them were people who were not satisfied with their life in the world, or their position in it. And G-47 has promised each of them a state or a country to rule for their own, if they will help him finish his experiment. This thing is terrific, Patricia. It means world conquest and a world of slaves if we can't prevent it. You are right, Captain. Well, let's quit guessing and let Joan explain some of the things she knows for sure about this island. Yes, G-47 gave you permission to take us around the island and explain it, Joan. But don't tell us anything you shouldn't. Right. No sense in you getting punished for showing us too much. You need not worry about that. The places I can take you into, you could walk through without me, and the others... Well, we'll touch only the things you tell us to. But before we go into any of the buildings, there's something I want to know. Something about this concrete or stone that we've been walking on. I know about that. You want to know why your shoes make no sound when you walk on this surface. You bet we want to know. Pretty near scared us to death when we were walking around the dark here last night, and we couldn't even hear our shoes hit this stone. It felt as if we were walking on a heavy carpet, yet this is smooth and hard as cement. I know how that is done. They made this island out of stone, or something hard like stone, then they painted it with the noiseless paint. A true soundproof paint. Pat, when I get back to the States and take that formula to the studios, I'll be rich. Hey, wait a minute. What happened, Jerry? Oh, nothing happened, but I just got something you said. What did I say? Well, you said when they made this island. You just mean when they fixed up the top of it, don't you? Not at all. G-47 explained the construction of this island quite lucidly. A hidden coral reef was utilized as a base, and the island gradually built up from the sea floor. The coral was used to form this hard substance we are walking on. So it is quite obvious, Jerry, they made the island. But that would have taken years and an army of men. How many people are there on this island? I think 250. Golly, whiskers. Where do they keep them? There can't be more than a dozen of these little steel buildings on the island. And I know most of these are radio rooms and defense chambers. Where are the people? Everyone lives on the lower level, and most of them work there. Lower levels? How far down does this thing go? There are ten levels below us, 100 feet. Gee whiz. Gee whiz is very good at this time, Jerry. A hundred feet deep, and about a thousand feet across, eh, Joan? The main circular part of the island is 600 feet in diameter. It is 800 feet between the control houses halfway out on the piers, and a thousand feet to the end of the piers. Then those piers are 200 feet long. How many a moth are? Twelve piers and eight submarines. Huh? Eight what? Submarines? Why, this is a complete fortress. Where are the submarines now? They are kept between the piers, deep in the water. You enter them from the 50 foot level. Submarines anchored eight fathoms down, and you board them there. Oh, this is so big it's hard to believe. And think of the damage they could do to the world. What are these little bowl-shaped places on the island floor or roof, or whatever this thing we're walking on is called? It is called the roof when we are up here, and the ceiling when we are under it. There you are, Pat. I deserved it. What are these little bowls, Joan dear? It is in those we have our palm garden during the safe days. What do you mean, safe days? When there is no ship near us, and the fog ring is let down, the sun comes in, and then we grow a palm garden. You grow a palm tree garden and these holes when you want it? That is a comparatively elementary demonstration. The chief agriculturist puts a small quantity of chemical soil in these receptacles, exposes them briefly to the light of sub-ultraviolet ray, then plants palm seeds in them, and in approximately 280 seconds the island is suitably shaded by palm trees of mature growth. Oh boy, will I, oh boy, I, oh boy. Have you actually seen that happen, Joan? Certainly, Mother, when the ocean is free of danger and the governing body wishes to train the colony in conduct in worldly agriculture. But what if a ship were to come upon you suddenly, or an aeroplane fly over, would take time to get rid of those trees? Only a few seconds, Captain. Just some other chemical put upon them, and in a moment they are only minute piles of vegetable ash in the bowls. Then the fog cloud is thrown around the island while that is happening. The magnetic ring is turned on, and ships pass by without even suspecting the existence of Euclidia. It's almost too much to believe, my dear, but we know some of it is true, so the rest is more plausible. Well, we had one boat that didn't pass the island without knowing it was here. The Euclidians were watching you all the time, and G-47 became afraid you might sail away in the night when you were released from the fog ring. So then he ordered the tractive magnets turned on to pull your yacht to the island. How strong are those magnets? I am not sure I can quote it accurately, but the design of the necessary strength in those magnets is based on Maxwell's fundamental equation for the pull, and that's... Hey, hey, not so fast. Even if you know all that, I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is how large a boat they were pulled to the island, and how far at sea this pull may be felt. I know that some boats have been pulled in which were longer than the piers and had to be destroyed at once as the fog ring would not conceal them. Jiminy Christmas. What...what happened to the people on those boats? Some of them have joined the scientists in their work, and the others... Oh, I have heard terrible things. My poor child. Don't you worry, Joan. We'll get you out of this quick. I don't know how quick, Jerry, but we'll get out all right. Here is the room where we make our dresses each day for the next day. Well, you didn't make one last night. No, and you look very charming in one of my dresses, dear. And even if the material of your dress didn't do us any good last night, the time will come when that material will save our lives, and possibly more than that. I do not see how that can be. It is a pretty and useful cloth, but after all, just a cloth. True, dear, but with a cloth that will shield us from the light and sound waves of these scientists, we can secure a little privacy, and Jerry and Tex will try to plan our escape. We will go in the cloth mill now, and remember, do not ask too many questions if you have the opportunity to ask any. GEE-WIZ! This is the noisiest place I was ever in, and we couldn't hear a sound from the outside. The walls are treated with the sound proof paint. Those machines certainly make an awful clatter. That doesn't seem right to me. With all the other things this bunch has figured out, why don't they silence those machines? I'll bet they can't stop the noise. I'll bet they can stop it. You are right, Captain. These machines are kept noisy for a good reason. Just to give the people headaches? No, to keep the Euclidean hearing normal. GEE-47 hasn't overlooked a bet, has it? I don't understand it. What value has all this noise? I should think it would be easier on the ears and nerves and everything else to have them run quietly. I sure don't get it, Tex. Jones said it was to keep their hearing normal. That means that nearly everything on this island is perfectly silent. And if the people here were never to hear a sound except their own voices, they would soon lose part of the art of hearing. They would not be able to distinguish one sound from another. Many men have come here, Captain Bradford, but no one else has ever grasped the true reason for these things as you do. I can see why GEE-47 wanted you here. I understand it now. And you are a clever man, Tex. These men here were really afraid to have you continue your experiments in our world. They wanted your brain here. That's why the yacht was allowed to reach the island. Well, we came to find Joan and we got her. So never mind how we got to the island, and if Tex is smart enough that these guys are afraid of him, then he's smart enough to get us out of this. I hope you're right, Jerry, but I don't feel very smart right now. Show us how the machine works, will you, Joan? You will notice that large hopper at the intake side of the room, where they are putting the macrosystis periferra in. That is just ordinary seaweed taken from any kelp bed. Then that wonderful cloth is made from seaweed? Gosh, these fellows are plenty smart, all right. The seaweed is ground up there. Then it goes through all these other machines where they do things to it which I do not understand. Then it comes out on those rollers ready to make dresses of. I do know, however, that before it comes out, as you see it, it has gone down to one of the lower levels to a secret laboratory. I have never seen that. And I'll bet that's where it gets soaked with the sound and lightproof liquid. If we could only get our hands on some of that liquid. Right, boy, we could cover the yacht with it and get out of here. Why, the machinery, the noise has stopped. Has something happened? I have never known it to stop at this time of day before. I'll bet it's our fault. Do you think they could hear us talking through all that noise? Probably if they wanted to, but why stop the machinery? The alarm. That gong is only rung when someone is trying to escape from the island. Five strokes. That means near Pier 5. Your yacht is anchored at Pier 5, Mother. Someone must be trying to escape from your yacht. I'll bet the skipper's trying to take a rowboat out. Boy, I hope he makes it.
