Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930

"Oh boy!" he whispered. "Leland is certainly up to something down there and no mistake! How're we going to get down?" "Get down?" asked Tommy. "You don't want to go down there, do you?" "Sure thing. We're this far now and, by George, we're going to find out all there is to learn." "How deep do you suppose it is?" "Pretty deep, Tommy. But we can get an idea by dropping a stone and counting the seconds until it strikes." He played the light of the flash over the floor and soon located a smooth round stone of the size of a baseball. This he tossed over the rim of the pit and awaited results. "Good grief!" exclaimed Tommy. "It's not falling!" What he said was true, for the stone poised lightly over the opening and drifted like a feather. Then slowly it moved, settling gradually into oblivion. Frank turned the flash downward and they watched in astonishment as the two-pound pebble floated deliberately down the center of the shaft at the rate of not more than one foot in each second. "Well, I'll be doggoned," breathed Frank admiringly. "Leland has done it. He has conquered gravity. For, in that pit at least, there is no gravity, or at any rate not enough to mention. It has been almost completely counteracted by some force he has discovered and now we know how to follow him down there. Come on Tommy, let's go!" And, suiting action to his words, Frank jumped into the mouth of the pit where he bobbed about for a moment as if he had jumped into a pool of water. Then slowly he sank from view, and Tommy followed him.