Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 153: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE RADIO into the clubs to which my three assistants ~ belonged, and became popular there, as well. The idea spread like wildfire, and soon all the clubs throughout the kingdom were clamoring for guns. The mechanical labo- ratory at Kuana was made over into a huge arsenal, and the chemical laboratory ito a huge munition factory, while the athletic clubs of Kuana and the vicinity detailed some of their members to work overtime in my two plants. Cupians will always work overtime in the cause of play. Target practice soon became the national sport of Cupia. The craze even reached such dimensions that Queen Formis finally dispatched a special mission to Kuana to study the movement and report whether it could not be put to some practical use. The report of that mission is now one of my most treasured possessions, and a framed reproduction of their conclusions now hangs upon my office wall. The ant mission concluded, and so re- ported to their queen, that the new game had absolutely no practical application, but that if it kept the crazy Cupians quiet and took their minds off their troubles, it might prove a valuable contribution toward sim- plifying the enforcement of the treaty of Mooni. And so, indeed, it seemed. Toron neglected politics to become a proficient shot, and his anti-Formian movement rap- ‘idly subsided. All of which was exactly as I had planned. The collapse of the Toron movement so pleased the exiled Prince Yuri that he sent a special ambassador to his brother, offer- ing to assist in introducing the new sport to the Cupians at Mooni. But “TI fear the Greeks even when bearing doughnuts,” as we used to say at Harvard. So Yuri’s kind offer was declined. We did, however, pre- sent a sample rifle and some of our powder to the authorities of the Imperial University of the ant men at their request, for we could not very well refuse. Finally King Kew himself condescended to sit in at the conferences between Hah Babbuh, Buh Tedn, Ja Babbuh, Toron, and myself. He had been brooding a good deal recently on the indignities inflicted on his people by Queen Formis, with whom he had had several disputes lately; and the ~ MAN. 187 committee work seemed to divert and cheer him up greatly. But still I was not made a sarkar, although I learned from Lilla that Hah Babbuh had urged this on the king. ‘The influence of Bthuh Sarkari was still too strong. In fact, it was rumored that she now aspired to make herself Queen of Cupia. Well, I did not mind. Better even one of her sons on the throne than Yuri! Having got the new game well under way, I next turned to my old love, radio. First I obtained some stones from the Howl- ing Valley, which was easy, because of my deafness to Hertzian waves: but I was un- able to put them to any practical use. Then I devised a simple wave trap for absorbing the ordinary carrying waves of Porovian speech. Also I arranged a variable con- denser, which could so alter the capacity of Cupian antenna as to make selective sending and reception fully possible. These two devices were combined in a small box which could easily be carried on a man’s head and be coupled to his antenna. My third invention along these lines was a broadcasting set, whereby the normal Cupian sending range of four para- stads—about fifty yards—was increased to half a stad—about half a mile. And now, in my frantic quest for a sar- karship, I introduced a still further new game, namely, marching evolutions on an extended scale. Strictly speaking, this was really an adaptation of an old game, rather than the creation of a new, for marching formations had always been popular in Cupia; but my three devices made it pos- sible to perform these evolutions by twelves of thousands. To this I added the manual of arms from good old I. D. R., 1913 edition. Now they must make me a sarkar. -We tried it out in our own twelve thou- sand. The commander broadcasted his orders to the selectively tuned headsets of the eklats, and they in turn to the pootahs, each of whom then directed his hundred at ordinary wave length. The regimental evo- lutions went through like clockwork, and this idea spread to the other twelve thou- sands of the country. But still I was not made a sarkar. oO CORNICE OOKSs€O ' 4) HEA ite