CHAPTER XV.

The Great Debt.

“The King began to be much concerned in regard to the great debt. He called his bankers together and had them compute it down to date. Then after brooding over the matter for some days he called his council and the Lunarian claimants together and made them a speech. He declared he was sick and tired of “paying interest.” True, he had never paid any, but it constantly added to the already most appalling debt to be found in the solar system. “In fact it is so great (said he) that we have no single words to express it. It is written by setting down 20 and then annexing to that a string of 153 ciphers. The original debt left by my illustrious ancestor the father of the canals was 1,000,000 kiks, at least that is all his successor assumed, and it is that insignificant sum that has grown to such overwhelming proportions.

“Take 20,000,000 septillions of kiks and multiply by 1,000,000 sextillions; multiply this product by 1,000,000 of quintillions and this by 1,000,000 quadrillions; this by 1,000,000 millions; and finally multiply this by 1,000,000. Now from this inconceivably great sum subtract _one kik_. That kik is the principal; all the rest is _interest_. As the whole principal was 1,000,000 kiks, our whole debt is 1,000,000 times the above sum.[5] I have for several days been endeavoring to master the financial principle applicable to this case. Our Lunarian professors have told us that the normal advance of natural modes of motion is by undulation, or the progressive rising and falling of one wave after another, as in the ocean, the movement of heat and light, the ebbing and flowing of the tides etc. I have observed that the same law holds in the accumulation of wealth. It undulates. It is lively awhile, then dull. Business men accumulate a pile, then lose it. It is the same with money engaged in business, it sometimes gains, sometimes loses. A man may drink twenty hogsheads of wine, but he cannot accumulate that much inside of him at once.

“It may be possible for one little kik in the course of 7,000 years to earn on Mars all the wealth both real and personal that there is on all the planets in the solar system and much more besides. At any rate it has done it on paper according to the figures and the claim of our Lunarian friends, but evidently it could only be done by its dropping a lot of it occasionally and earning it over again. So the undulatory movement applies here as a physical necessity. But the papers in this case so far, represent only the swelling of the wave without the complementary sinking that completes an undulation, and makes its continued movement a physical possibility. These papers relate only to the ascending or crescendo half of the wave, but fail to provide for the diminuendo side of it. This wave has been swelling for 7,000 years. It is high time it had reached its culmination or greatest amplitude and I think it has. Seven is a mystic number and in this case evidently marks that epoch. Time alone was competent to enable a little kik to pile up such an accumulation of debt against us, and what time has done, time can undo.

“I propose now to issue a diminuendo bond that will in the course of 7,000 years reduce this debt back to the level it started from. Instead of bearing interest, this bond will bear discount. This discount the first year will be precisely what the interest was the last, and each year in the descending future the bond will be reduced to the same amount to which it was increased in the year as far in the past as it is in the future counting from the date of the bond. So that 1,000 years hence the amount of it will be the same that it was 1,000 years ago and so on. Coupons shall be attached, representing the amount of the discount each year which the holders of the bonds shall detach and present to the treasurer to be cancelled. Thus the debt will be reduced every year and it will cost nobody a kik.

“At the end of 7,000 years all the accumulation of interest will have been dissipated and only the principal will be left. This if not paid then will begin to draw interest again, because by the undulatory theory, the wave having reached its lowest ebb must thereafter rise.”

“This was the substance of the king’s speech, and it was highly applauded by the whole assembly, except the Lunarians. They said it looked to them like repudiation, and they told the king they feared it would hurt his credit not only in the Moon, but on the Earth, and Venus, Juno, Pallas, Ceres, Vesta and all the rest. The King replied that he would be sorry to do anything that would impair his credit in the other planets and for that reason would not on any account repudiate. That was why he gave this bond. If he intended to repudiate he would not need to give any bond. By this arrangement they would get their million kiks in the course of time—would no doubt have got them long ago—if that load of interest had not been piled on top of them. The object of this bond was to remove this interest. According to the undulatory theory of finance that he had just announced, the total amount of loss of money employed in business exactly equals the total amount of gain, since money does not change in amount by being used. But in particular cases there may be net gains at the expense of loss somewhere else. And he said that the shrewdness of the Lunarians would have insured to them a measure of net gain; but by no possibility could it have amounted to many times itself even in the course of ages. “It is labor, not money, that creates wealth. If you bury 100 kiks in the ground and after a year dig them up you will not find that they have increased to 105.”

“This talk of the king convinced the Lunarians that he did not intend to pay the interest on their claim and as they could not afford to quarrel with him, they proposed a compromise, and it was finally settled that they should receive 1,000,000 kiks in addition to the property they had taken on the foreclosure, and a bond for ten million kiks to be paid at the option of the government without interest or security. They did not regard this bond as very valuable, and as a matter of fact it has not been paid off to this day, but still constitutes a “claim.” After all, however, they did well enough notwithstanding their astounding loss.

“They were now recognized as men who through no fault of their own had sunk the most stupendous sum of money ever known to exist in one fund, and this circumstance gave them as much notoriety and almost as much influence and importance, as if they still had to their credit the sum of 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000 kiks.”

Deimos and the Great Cable.

These financial questions being settled the Lunarians went to work to improve their new property. They commenced work on the south polar region, opening extensive mines of coal and iron and starting furnaces and rolling mills. It soon became known what they were up to, which proved to be nothing less than the capture of Jack-Deimos and setting him to work. The first thing to do was to construct a cable long enough to reach from the pole of Mars to Deimos. Deimos is 14,547 miles from the center of Mars and a little further from the pole viz 14,690 miles. The cable was made about 25 miles longer than that. It was composed of a vast number of strands of tremendously tough steel wire and put together in the most marvelous way, for they were in small bundles insulated from each other as to the attraction of gravitation and also insulated by sections of their length. By this construction a part of the strands might be made to be subject to the attraction of gravitation, others alongside of them to repulsion, also a strand might be made subject to attraction in one part while in another it could be subject to repulsion, and these conditions could be reversed, or all the parts could be caused to be in the same state. The effect of this was very remarkable. When the cable was completed it was stretched out a section of one to two hundred miles at a time, and tested, an alternating electrical battery being used to alter the gravitational conditions. By proper manipulation, the cable could be made to rise bodily from the ground, or it could be made to rise by sections, one section on the ground and another humped up like the back of an angry cat, or when lying down straight it could be made to roll over, by causing one side to be attractive and the other repelling.

“This cable was eight inches in diameter. The lower end was doubled on itself to form an eye five feet in diameter. The other end for 25 miles was left free, the wires all being separate and loose with balls of iron attached to their ends. When this end of the cable was tested, a considerable section, by being subjected to repulsion, rose from the ground and assumed a perpendicular position, the loose ends of the wire parting and repelling each other like the hairs on the head of an electrified person. This was what was required and the test was pronounced a perfect success.

“Over the south pole of Mars is a mountain some 8,000 feet above the sea level. They found the exact pole not far from the highest part of this mountain which was a lucky circumstance. Here they planted a great steel shaft deep in the hard rock, its end sticking up so as to receive the eye of the cable. A good deal of grading and leveling off of obstructions that stood up above the proposed sweep of the cable, had to be removed. But the largest part of the work was the construction of the circular railway. This railway was built in a circle around the pole and 285 miles distant from it. The diameter of this circle was 570 and the length of the road was 1,791 miles. There were two purposes to be served by this road. A person standing at the pole of Mars cannot see Deimos on account of the bulge or convex surface of the globe. And it is only when he gets 285 miles from the pole that he can look over the bulge and see the little moon. So a rope drawn taut from Deimos to the pole of the planet, would drag on the ground for the 285 miles next the pole, but outside of the 285 miles the line would gradually leave the ground. A large heavy car was made to travel on the railroad to hold up the cable as it swept around. Attached to this car there was to be a train holding the dynamos in which the power was to be turned into electricity.

“When everything was ready to hook on to the little moon, the cable was caused to erect itself by repulsion. It tended to stand directly out in line with the pole as if it were a continuation of the axis, and care had to be taken to prevent it slipping off its shaft and going off bodily into space. This had been anticipated and provided against however. After standing a few hours under the influence of repulsion it became rigid and perfectly straight. One-half of the strands throughout the whole length of the cable except the last twenty miles were now placed under the influence of attraction and the other half under repulsion. This left it still rigid, but indifferent and movable in any direction by a very small force like a water soaked log in the water. Attraction was now turned on a very small portion of the lower end of the cable and it began slowly to incline toward the ground. When it got down almost to the ground it was found that the ground where the railroad was built was running under the cable from west to east at the rate of 72½ miles an hour. Some very delicate manipulation was required here. The cable by having been erected at the pole had no rotary motion as the planet had. The planet revolved from west to east at the rate of 521.4 miles an hour at the equator, but, at the circular railroad this was reduced to 72.6 miles. At the pole of course it was nothing. As the railroad track and the car for carrying the cable were whirling along at that rate while the cable itself was stationary, it became necessary to give the cable a rotary sweep corresponding in direction with the diurnal revolution of the planet, and at somewhere near the same speed. This was accomplished by compelling work to be done by the revolution of the planet. Several little circular tracks were laid around the pole and close to it on which were placed cars carrying heavy steel beams that projected on either side and dragged cutting and scraping tools. The cars being attached to the cable, as the planet revolved they were made to pare down the mountain, and as this process continued long after the successful attachment of the cable to Deimos the part of the mountain immediately at the pole became shaped like an immense pin or capstan. The doing of this work by this steady pulling on the cable gradually set the cable to revolving around the shaft at the pole, the speed constantly increasing until at the railway the cable had developed a speed of 60 miles an hour or within 12.6 miles an hour of the rate the surface of the planet at the railway was traveling. A locomotive was now attached to the car or truck that was to carry the cable, and by running it from east to west at the rate of 12.6 miles an hour it could be kept directly under the cable. Before lowering it, however, it was necessary to hump or raise up that part of it extending from the pole to the railway, to keep it from dragging on the ground which if straight it would do on account of the rounding of the globe of Mars. That was done by turning on repulsion over that part of it, and simultaneously putting on attraction in the region of the railway. This tended to cant the loose end of the cable toward the plane of the planet’s equator and brought it very near to the orbit of Deimos. The cable was settled upon its truck without trouble. This truck with the cable now had an apparent motion from east to west of 12.6 miles an hour its real motion being from west to east 60 miles an hour and that of the railway track also from west to east 72.6 miles an hour. The loose end of the cable swept around with a speed proportional with its distance from the pole of Mars. This speed was 3,062½ miles per hour which is 46 miles faster than that of Deimos which is 3,016½ as I mentioned before. Of course it was now only necessary to tip the cable over a little more so as to get it into the equatorial plane of Mars in order to bring it into contact with Deimos. This was done by applying attraction to a short section of the cable just outside of the railway track. The cable slowly moved at the switch end and came into line with Deimos about 43 days after having passed him. So as it gained on him only 46 miles an hour, it took about 40 days after this to catch up. This gave ample time to get the cable into exact position so there would be no danger of missing him. This most exciting race was now closely watched by every body on Mars that could get near a telescope—and our folks had introduced some very excellent ones. The cable gradually crept up on Jack—so the spectators said—like an old woman with a broom. As the final moment approached the excitement became intense. The cable like a vast arm terminated by an immense hand with extended fingers came up threateningly behind and at the fated instant gave Jack a spank on the rear with a shock of 46 miles an hour which sent all the fingers flying around him and clasping him with a tremendous grasp.

“At that moment full attraction was turned on to these clasping strands of wire and their hug was made permanent by the attraction with which Deimos held them down to his surface. This was considered by the Lunarians the greatest feat in engineering that had ever been accomplished up to that time.”

“Or since that time either I should imagine,” said I, “it was wonderful! What else has ever been achieved to compare with it?”

“Well, the catching of Lucy-Phobos”—

“O, I forgot about Lucy-Phobos. What did they do with her or him?—Did they hitch Phobos to the other pole of Mars?”

“No, I’ll tell you; but let me finish with Deimos first. When the cable struck Deimos of course its speed was at once checked. The shock caused quite a wave to pass down the whole length of the cable, but no damage was done, and when things got steadied down again it was found the truck that carried the cable was making a speed of 13½ miles an hour from east to west instead of 12.6 which it was doing before the cable struck Deimos. The reason of this was that Deimos was slower than the cable and Mars dragged the track out from under the car 13½ miles faster than Deimos dragged it forward. It was no trouble after this to go up to Deimos by way of the cable. A car was built around the cable consisting of four stories, one above another. Friction rollers pressed the cable on all sides to steady the car and there were brakes to hold it when necessary. Its chambers were air tight and it carried compressed air for the use of its passengers together with all the modern conveniences. Of course it ascended by repulsion and came back by attraction. It entirely obviated the trouble they first experienced in making a landing on the little moon, since the cable traveled as fast as it did. Frequent trips were made to Deimos and it was always quite the trip for the strong nerved traveler to take. But the main advantage of this work of course came from the enormous power that it afforded for industrial purposes. A long train of trucks were attached to the one carrying the cable, and these contained dynamos driven by gearing connections with their axles. The electricity generated in this way was carried to wires running parallel with the circular railroad, and from these, radiating wires running north, convey the power to all parts of the south temperate zone.”

“They made considerable and remarkable changes in Deimos itself. One thing they did was to import a large stock of air. As I mentioned before the air was very light and thin, and visitors at first had to depend on their flasks of compressed air to a great extent. But after they got to making such frequent trips, it became a rule to always take up large flasks of compressed oxygen which was prepared and kept on hand to be carried up whenever a trip should be made. This was set free on the little moon. In that way in the course of time the air has been made quite passable. In order that visitors might not consume it and replace it with carbonic acid gas, they built several lines of tiny railroads reaching around Deimos on which they built movable gardens. These moved around the whole circuit of the little globe every 30 hours and 18 minutes, that being its period of revolution around Mars. These little gardens thus kept themselves directly under the sun all the time, and were thus always in a tropical climate. Their growth consumed the carbonic gas that accumulated there, and so kept the air pure. The power that moved the gardens was electricity generated by sun light. A large number of machines were placed at intervals all around the little moon so that the sun should always be shining on several of them.”