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289
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930
·
Various
61
Hackett
grinned,
but
the
long,
lean
face
of
Norman
was
earnest.
"No
doubt
it
all
sounds
a
little
insane,"
he
said,
"but
I'm
convinced
I'm
right."
The
field
superintendent
shook
his
head.
"Norman,
you
ought
to
be
writing
fiction
instead
of
flying.
A
second
satellite--and
Fellows
and
the
others
on
it--what
the
devil!"
"What
other
theory
can
account
for
their
disappearance?"
asked
Norman
calmly.
"You
know
that
since
the
new
X-type
planes
were
introduced,
hundreds
of
fliers
all
over
Earth
have
been
trying
for
altitude
records
in
them.
Twenty-five
miles--thirty--thirty-five--the
records
have
been
broken
every
day.
But
out
of
the
hundreds
of
fliers
who
have
gone
up
to
those
immense
heights,
four
have
never
come
down
nor
been
seen
again!
"One
vanished
over
northern
Sweden,
one
over
Australia,
one
over
Lower
California,
and
one,
Fellows,
himself,
right
here
over
Long
Island.
You
saw
the
globe
on
which
I
marked
those
four
spots,
and
you
saw
that
when
connected
they
formed
a
perfect
circle
around
the
Earth.
The
only
explanation
is
that
the
four
fliers
when
they
reached
a
forty-mile
height
were
caught
up
by
some
body
moving
round
Earth
in
that
circular
orbit,
some
unknown
moon
circling
Earth
inside
its
atmosphere,
a
second
satellite
of
Earth's
whose
existence
has
until
now
never
been
suspected!"
Harding
shook
his
head
again.
"Norman,
your
theory
would
be
all
right
if
it
were
not
for
the
cold
fact
that
no
such
satellite
has
ever
been
glimpsed."
"Can
you
glimpse
a
bullet
passing
you?"
Norman
retorted.
"The
two
fliers
at
Sweden
and
Lower
California
vanished
within
three
hours
of
each
other,
on
opposite
sides
of
the
Earth.
That
means
that
this
second
satellite,
as
I've
computed,
circles
Earth
once
every
six
hours,
and
travelling
at
that
terrific
speed
it
is
no
more
visible
to
us
of
Earth
than
a
rifle
bullet
would
be."
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