commanding officer at
Fort Moultrie. I'll have the Secretary of War telephone him and give
him orders. Get troops and go to the scene of the catastrophe. Allow
no one near it. Proclaim martial law if necessary. Stop all road and
rail traffic within a radius of two miles. Arrest anyone trying to
pass your guard lines. I'll get a plane from Langley Field and come
down on the run. Is that all clear?"

"Perfectly, Doctor. By the way, the President suggested that you bring
Dr. Lassen with you."

"Since it wasn't an earthquake, he wouldn't be of much value. However,
I'll bring him if I can get hold of him. Now start things moving down
there. I'll get some apparatus together and join you in five hours;
six at the outside. Have a car waiting for me at the Charleston
airport."

* * * * *

Carnes commandeered a passing car and drove back to Charleston. He
made a wide sweep to avoid the disturbed area and went direct to Fort
Moultrie. Dr. Bird had been good at his word. The troops were
assembled in heavy marching order when the detective arrived. A few
words to the commanding officer was sufficient to set the trucks
loaded with soldiers in motion. Carnes, accompanied by the colonel and
his staff, went direct to the scene of the catastrophe.

He found a hole in the ground, a hundred feet wide and a quarter of a
mile long, sunk to a depth of fifty feet. He shuddered as he thought
of what would have happened had the Presidential train been in the
center of the devastated area instead of at the edge. The edges of the
hole were ragged and sloping as though the earth had caved in to fill
a huge cavern underground.

State and local authorities were already on the ground, striving to
hold back sightseers. They were very glad to deliver their
responsibility to the representative of the federal government. Carnes
added their force to that of the military. In an hour a cordon of
guards were stationed about the cavern while every road was picketed
two miles away. Fortunately there had been no loss of life and no
rescue work was needed. The earth-shaking had been purely a local
matter, centered along the line of the railroad track.

There was nothing to do but wait, Carnes thought furiously. He had
worked with Dr. Bird long enough to have a fair idea of the
scientist's usual lines of investigation.

"The first thing he'll want to do is to explore that hole," he mused.
"Probably, that'll mean some excav