So astounding was this
communication that, despite the fact that it will unquestionably be
scoffed at by the public, I feel that it should be given to the world. As soon as I had received the story I hurried with it to the American
Minister in Lima, and related all that I had heard. He agreed with me
that the authorities at Washington should be acquainted with the matter
at once, and together we devoted many hours to coding the story which
was cabled in the secret cipher of the State Department. The officials,
however, were inclined to regard the matter as a hoax, and, as far as I
am aware, no steps have yet been taken to follow out the suggestions
contained in the communication which I received, and thus save humanity
from a terrible fate. Personally, I am convinced that the amazing tale
which came to me in such an astounding and unexpected manner is
absolutely true, incredible as it may seem, but whether fact or fiction,
my readers may decide for themselves. My son-in-law was intensely interested in radio, and devoted all of his
spare time to devising and constructing receiving sets, and in his home
in the delightful residential suburb of Miraflores, were a number of
receiving sets of both conventional and original design. Having been
closely in touch with the subject for several years, I was deeply
interested in Frank’s experiments, and especially in a new type of
hook-up which had given most remarkable results in selectivity and
distance. Practically every broadcasting station in America, and many in
Europe, had been logged by the little set, and on several occasions
faint signals had been heard which, although recognizable as English,
evidently emanated from a most remote station. These, oddly enough, had
come in at the same hour each night, and each time had continued for
exactly the same length of time. We were discussing this, and trying to again pick up the unintelligible
and unidentified signals on that memorable January evening, when,
without warning, and as clearly as though sent from the station at
Buenos Ayres, came the most astounding communication which ever greeted
human ears, and which, almost verbatim, was as follows:[1]

“LISTEN! For God’s sake, I implore all who may hear my words to listen! And believe what I say no matter how unbelievable it may seem, for the
fate of thousands of human beings, the fate of the human race may depend
upon you who by chance may hear this message from another world. My name
is James Berry, my home is Butte, Montana, my profession a mining
engineer, and I am speaking through the short wave transmitter of the
steamship _Chiriqui_ on which I was a passenger when the terrible, the
incredible events occurred which I am about to relate. On the evening of
October sixteenth[2] the _Chiriqui_ was steaming across the Pacific in
calm weather when our attention was attracted by what appeared to be an
unusually brilliant meteor of a peculiar greenish color. It first
appeared above the horizon to the southeast, and very rapidly increased
in size and brilliancy. At the time I was particularly struck by the
fact that it left no trail of light or fire behind it, as is usual with
large meteorites, but so rapidly did it approach that I had little time
to wonder at this. Within a few moments from the time that it was first
seen, the immense sphere of green incandescence had grown to the size of
the moon, and the entire sea for miles about our ship was illuminated by
a sickly green light. It appeared to be headed directly towards our
ship, and, standing as I was on the bridge-deck near the wheel-house, I
heard the chief officer cry out: ‘My God, it will strike us!’ By now the
mass of fire had altered in appearance, and a short distance below the
central green mass could be seen two smaller spheres of blinding red,
like huge globes of molten metal. By now, too, the noise made by the
meteor was plainly audible, sounding like the roar of surf or the sound
of a tornado. “Everyone aboard the ship was panic-stricken; women screamed, men cursed
and shouted, and the crew rushed to man the boats, as everyone felt that
the _Chiriqui_ was doomed. What happened next I can scarcely describe,
so rapidly did the events occur. As the meteor seemed about to hurl
itself upon the ship, there was a blinding flash of light, a terrific
detonation, and I saw men and women falling to the decks as if struck
down by shell fire. The next instant the meteor vanished completely, and
intense blackness followed the blinding glare. At the same moment, I was
aware of a peculiar pungent, suffocating odor which, perhaps owing to my
long experience with deadly gases in mining work, I at once recognized
as some noxious gas. Almost involuntarily, and dully realizing that by
some miracle the ship had escaped destruction, I dashed below and
reached my cabin almost overcome by the fumes which now penetrated every
portion of the ship. Among my possessions was a new type of gas-mask
which had been especially designed for mine work, and my idea was to don
this, for I felt sure that the meteor had exploded close to the ship and
had released vast quantities of poisonous gases which might hang about
for a long time. “Although almost overcome by the choking fumes, I managed to find and
put on the apparatus, for one of its greatest advantages was the
rapidity and ease with which it could be adjusted, it having been
designed for emergency use. But before it was fairly in place over my
face, the electric light in my room went out and I was in complete
darkness. Also, the ship seemed strangely still, and as I groped my way
to the stateroom door it suddenly dawned upon me that the engines had
stopped, that there was no longer the whirr of dynamos from the depths
of the hull. Not a light glimmered in the passageway, and twice, as I
felt my way towards the social hall, I stumbled over the sprawled bodies
of men, while in the saloon itself I several times stepped upon the soft
and yielding flesh of passengers who lay where they had been struck down
by the poisonous gas. In all probability, I thought, I was the sole
survivor aboard the ship, unless some of the firemen and engineers
survived, and I wondered how I would manage to escape, if the vessel
should be sighted by some other ship, or if it should be my gruesome
task to search the _Chiriqui_ from stem to stern, drag the bodies of the
dead to the deck and cast them into the sea, and remain--perhaps for
weeks--alone upon the ship until rescued by some passing vessel. But as
I reached the door and stepped upon the deck all such thoughts were
driven from my brain as I blinked my eyes and stared about in dumfounded
amazement. I had stepped from Stygian darkness into dazzling light. Blinded for the moment, I closed my eyes, and when I again opened them I
reeled to the rail with a cry of terror.