"All out for American Terminus, Ladrigo, Brazil," he called in a routine monotone.
Not a sound came from the interior of the Diamvator. The guard hesitated a moment, then stepped through the door into the tube car.
Within ten seconds he reappeared, fright etched on drawn features.
"Mr. Andrews!" he rasped from stiff lips. "It--it's happened again!"
Andrews' heavy features sagged. "No!" he said huskily. "No, it couldn't!"
Then with a bound he was through the Vator door with Randall at his heels. Inside, it took a moment for Randall's eyes to accommodate to the dimmer light. Then he saw that the interior of the Diamvator was remarkably like a comfortable drawing room in a luxurious home.
Several beautifully inlaid walnut tables occupied the central portion of a mirror-like floor. Gleaming chrome and leather chairs were spaced around them. Luxurious davenports and huge easy chairs ringed the circumference of the room, and the whole inviting scene was softly but pleasantly illumined by high-frequency tubes set flush in the domed ceiling.
Randall's glance made the complete circuit of the room before the astounding fact crashed through to his mind that there was not a single person in the room!
Randall stood stock still for a moment, cataloguing the details of the room, and trying to assimilate the facts of this strange enigma.
Then he turned to Andrews and asked, "How many passengers left the Antipodes in the Vator?"
"Ten," Andrews said huskily. "That's three times in the last month this has happened. I--I don't know what--"
"How about cargo?" Randall interrupted, his pale eyes glowing with a newly awakened fire. "Any valuable shipment?"
Andrews shook his head vehemently. "That's what makes it even more inexplicable! Each time this thing has happened there has been nothing but baggage scheduled. The mail and most of our insured expressage goes out on the 6:30 A.M. trip. I--"
"Any idea how anything could possibly disappear from the Diamvator during its trip? Don't you have radio contact with the car?"
Again the Earth-Tube supervisor shook his head. "How anything or anyone could leave the Vator during the trip, even with the aid of its passengers, is more than a mystery. It's impossible! As for contact, we have no communication with the Vator from the time it leaves one side until it reaches the other. You see, the Earth's metal core entirely absorbs and blankets Hertzian waves, making radio communication impossible from car to surface."