 This is the story of a man who never belonged anywhere, whose backyard is the world, whose ways of life are the dreams of escape for those who want action, but never find it. The man John Steele, adventurer, want to make a fortune? Sure, why not? You may be just a guy. All you have to do is find a certain method. His first letter is G. No, no, not gold. Not gold, uranium, or any of those. The stuff I'm talking about is still known to only a few. Want to try for that fortune? Find G. Ken Yeager's an interesting guy. He's a scientist, one of the new kinds. You won't find him in a long fight smart behind a laboratory table. Every time I've seen him, he's been wearing dungarees, work shoes, and a plaid mac and all over a sweatshirt. You'll I will find him anywhere, even in a coal yard. Hey, Steele. Hi, Ken, what you up to? We're right now. Whatcha doing up on top of that coal pile? Ha-ha! Huh? What'd you say? And you pipe down now, huh? Huh? You want to get the watchman on us? Nobody is supposed to be in here. Well, you told me to meet you here. Didn't know they'd post a watchman. Well, of course they have one. This yard's private property. Come on, before we get caught. Come on! Well, sure, sure. Come on, before he sees us get them out. Faster, faster, before he catches me with this. The devil you're doing in here is stealing a bag of coal. OK, now, run! Watchman has turned his back. That's that hole. Run! And now listen, you. Where's the coal yard? The guy down here, too. You tell me to meet you at the coal yard. You steal a paper bag of coal. Now sneak down here along the pier. Just this here. You know which pier this is? I can raid city garbage disposal. Garbage and ash. So what? The dump, city dump. Where the street cleaning trucks unload what I want. You nuts. What I want. Kim, you sure you'll feel all right? Fine. You've been hitting it pretty hard all these years. Most experiments. Well, people sometimes do over-extend themselves, you know. See you. See? Sure I see it. The Ash cow? This one. Right next to us. See what it says? City powerhouse ash disposal. Powerhouse ash disposal. So what? What I've been looking for, Kim, give it. No, now look, Kim, you're going to start that again? Look, I know you a long time. Will you come off of it? Will you cut that big brother's stuff? I'm on the trail or something big. Real big, biggest thing I ever stumbled on. What? G. Huh? G is going to revolutionize everything. Just like that, huh? Just G. Germanium. Never heard of it, huh? Nope. Metal, a new metal. You kidding? Uh-uh. Yeah, sure, huh? What's a metal? Don't you think I know my science? Sure, but I think I maybe blew my gasket. Well, the way you've been acting. Germanium is a chemical element. Same, natural family of tin and lead. Cymbal GE, atomic weight, 72.6, atomic number 32. Grayish white metal, very rare. Found so far mainly in smokestacks and ash bits. Oh, that's horrible. Well, I'm sorry. Of course, I didn't know. Neither does anybody else, yet. Huh? I don't even know where to find Germanium. Better go help me get on board this ash, Scott. Sure. Right to the chance to switch another sample of these ashes. Another sample. Of course, I've been doing this for weeks. Anybody watching? Uh-uh. No sign of the watchman. Let me do this bag full. I've been going from one coal yard to another for weeks. And every ash dump in town will step on it. Let's see, a mile away, up on top of those gray ash. It's almost full. The lights are behind you, remember, the harbor lights. OK? Come on, give me a hand down. Come on, John. John, if I'm right, if I'm finally on the right track, well, come on, let's get out of here. This bag of ashes and that bag of coal, millions. If I'm right, John, worth more than gold. Come on home. I went home with Ken. Passed the watchman when their backs were turned. Went all the way across town to the little building where Ken had his research laboratory. He had no real home. An army cop in the corner made Ken's lab his home. Mash it. Mash me that pebble mill. Press that gas valve wider. Huh? Gas? William, sure. All right, slide the button. OK, on the slide. Onsenberg. Hungry? Uh-huh. Todd? How long it's going to be? These experiments take long? Find a chair. Where? Over there. The only thing that could be comfortable in here is a test tube. When are you going to let up enough to enjoy light? I'm enjoying it. Yeah, you are, man. I'm enjoying it. Fine. What's that? What you find, Ken? Crack open that gas more. Fire flame? Sure. Oxidize, oxidize. Come on, oxidize. You getting something out of that mess? I'm getting like 1.2, 0.25, 2,500. 1%? Not much, is it? I'm no chemist, but that doesn't sound like a big percentage. Steel. Yeah, over there, table. Checkbook. In the drawer, my desk, my pen. Yeah, yeah, sure. Jimmy. Jimmy. Yeah, thanks. You got a car? A car. Where's your car? Going on one now. All right, we're down the street. Here. Light check? Buy one. Just like that? What time is it? 6.45. Have her and have her closed. The big chemical company. Where am I going to get some? I've used mine all up. What? Geez, a manium. Need some pure, purified state. How am I going to have a control of the compound? Wait till tomorrow. Got to leave tonight. We should buy the car. I'll tell you what. Hey, you know these part of hearing people where hearing aids? Yeah, get one. Are your hearing gone bad? No, kind. The very newest here, tubeless. Once without tubes, no vacuum tubes. And stop with a drug store. Round me a couple of bottles of acid. What kind? Nitric hydrochloric drug store. Call that muriatic. Where we going? Same place this fight too much came from. Tucky. The bluegrass, huh? No. The hills of Kentucky. The beginning of danger and a piece of the unknown. There's much of these when in a moment we hear more in the story of John Steele, adventurer. I bought the station wagon, the acid, and the hearing aid. Then I drove the new car back to Ken's lab. He was waiting for me at the curb, sitting on top of a sidewalk full of laboratory equipment. I helped him stow his cases of chemical gear in the back of the station wagon. Then we started off south of the hills of Kentucky. Come on, John. Give her the ink. Driving as fast as I can. We've got to go 900 miles. The man said don't go over 35. How are we going to get there? The auto salesman said 35. Come on, huh? Pull over. Come on. Want to ruin the car? Just get out. Let me drive. Come around, huh? OK, OK, ruin it. Your money. Ruining your new car. Ruined. You know you're supposed to break it in. Ruined. Some of them are ruined before you even buy them. I only spent $3,100 of your bucks for it an hour ago. Come on, come on. Don't go around, kiddie. Ruined. What's $3,100 compared to $1,000,000? Yeah, if you'll make a million. Thank you. All I'm going to do is find it. Come on. Close up. Let's get rolling. He drove as fast as the car had let him. Hour after hour, toward northeastern Kentucky, I must have fallen asleep. I woke up with mountains in my eyes, and I couldn't believe what I saw. A sign on a mountain said Tennessee. 16 hours, he driven straight down 900 miles in 16 hours. Blue boy blue. Uh-huh. You know him? What? He was snore. Yeah, I know something else. Like a whole grunt full of pigs. You better stop and relax. Lazy, I'll stop at Lazy. Where's that? Chuck? OK. Let me drive. Nope. To the northeastern Kentucky, all the trail of the lonesome mines. Mines. Mines. Ha-ha. See, you'll know. Mines. Sure. Yours. Uh-huh. Germanium. All mine. I must have fallen asleep again. When I opened my eyes this time, nothing was moving. The station wagon had stopped. I looked for Ken. He wasn't in the driver's seat. And I looked through the dusty wind shield. Ken was down on his hands and knees up ahead in the ruts of the road. He had his arms full of coal, stray hunks of coal that were lying around. Steel. Yeah, Ken. I feel it. I think it's the same kind. I'm on the right track. All right, you drive, huh? I'm going to work over this coal. I drove. I wanted to see what he was doing in the back of the station wagon. But in this part of Kentucky, you've got to keep your eyes on the road. We were climbing higher, the Hill Country, the wild, lonely Hill Country where tourists never come. Then we started down. I heard Ken cracking coal in the back of the wagon. Then we came to what should have been a town built on the side of a mountain. 35 degrees straight down the side. When I slammed on the brakes, part of the mountain started sliding down under the car. I threw the gear shift into reverse, yanked the emergency. Then I started to get out to find a rot to put under a wheel. I had to hold on. It was almost too steep to stand. There were no rocks. Coal. The mountain was coal. Then I knew what looked so funny about the town. The houses, church, jail, stores, everything in the town had slipped foundations. The whole town had slipped down the mountain. Half of the buildings had ended up 1,000 feet down, ended up upside down. Anybody here? You feel a shake? The ground? Undercut. All these years, too much undercutting. You mean underneath too much coal mining skin, here dig your shoe. Yeah, yeah, I see. Skin, that's what we call the ground. Too much digging underground, too much blasting. When you blast, you've got to space your blow shots in time. Give the ground a chance to recover. Where is everybody? This place is like a graveyard. Yeah, like a graveyard after a storm. Stop, see, turdy. Everything's tumbled down. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, everybody! Duck, duck can the shot. Well, that's better. Duck, you darn fool, down behind the car. Lousy shot. I'm not sure if somebody's around. Yeah, yeah, sure does. See him? Keep down. Shots came from down there. You know, eye down. You want to get your head shot off? Unfriendly. Yeah, real unfriendly. Shots came from the bottom of the mountain. Oh, how am I ever going to get my work done? I'm not unfriendly once I get to know you. How are we going to arrange that? Hands up. I'm behind you, Dick. Get into that car. Now, listen. Dick, get up where you get to self-kill. My finger fingers are all nervous. Well, why don't we just turn around for a sec? Want to talk? What for? You got us all wrong. Oh, I just got some smart, Dick. I got no use for all I hear. Now, what are you doing around here? You, mister. Hey, look out what I'd like to see. You. Hello? Come on, turn it the other way, huh? What are you doing around here? Taking coal samples. What for? Maybe make some work around here. Coals all played out. Coals only bring out folk trouble. Well, I'm not really after coal. You said you were looking for coal samples. Now you're saying this. Well, not really the coal. Coal itself. What I'm after is in the coal. I have to experiment. You're talking nonsense. Get. No, no, you've got to listen. Coals ruined us. Why don't you listen? You going to get 10. These are poor people. You got me cash on you. That's an idea. What is your name, mister? Yancey, Jesse Yancey. Well, here, Yancey. Just to show you. You know, I'll prove we're not here to skin you. Come on, Yancey, it's yours. Take it. I ain't done nothing to earn your money, mister. Well, take the money, spread it around. Sure. Must have a lot of little Yancey. Buy yourself some biddles. Man's got no right to take money unless he earns it. OK, earn it. Round me up some men to help me, huh? Coals, your coal's all played out. You can't open these mines and expect tonnage. Just coal samples. Right, Ken? Samples. As many different samples as you can find, Yancey. That's all I want. Now, you going to help me with my experiment? Here's to me. I'm watching you. How am I going to explain to him, Steve? It's tough. Suspicious, subduant, suspicious. Little people always are. They saw me looking at the coal. All they know is coal's coal. Heard what he said. I know, I know, coal ruined them. But they won't understand what I'm after. Won't even know what I'm talking about if I tell them Germanium in the coal. Took me a little while. They won't understand. How are they going to understand if even most people on the outside don't know about it? We buy these, buy these, buy these. Yeah, yeah, modern boys all around. Go over here. Hide behind rocks with rifles. Covering us all around. Come on, boys. They're pointing those rifles. They don't like this steel. How am I going to explain what I'm out here for? They wouldn't understand chemistry, chemical engineering. There are people, Ken. One thing people all over understand, a smile. Into all those guns? Smile. Smile can smile. Suspense and action. One leads to the other. And the result will hear in a moment with the climax of another adventure with John Steele. We smiled. Ken and I smiled as the lean and hungry-looking mountain men came down at us. Came down the mountain from all sides. They came slow with the funny, loping walk of the mountains with their long guns at their sides, aimed from the hip. I held my breath as they ringed us in. They rolled their eyes over as Ken and me. And they looked over at the brand new car. And they looked in, the mysterious looking chemical gear piled inside, mysterious to them. Oh, I'm so excited. Oh, wow. Oh, I'm so excited. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, wow's over. Mr. He just wants samples. That's your act? Samples and other places to set up my labor, my testing stuff. You going to coyote? No. Coyote means blast. You stymied a blast. You sure? Cross my heart. You don't have to do that. Just don't coyote, and we'll be glad to work for you. Work? Get me samples. Different samples. Mr. If and you're honest, you won't have no trouble here on the mountain. We've been hoping. We've been praying to the Lord to send us down something more solid than a shift in the mountain. We've got little ins and old folks and poor women. Ain't had nothing to cook for beddles. And it's a deal. We're willing to work and provide. Snorrius thought you were making progress. This isn't the coal. You came here? It's not the coal. Germanium content mix. Not a trace. Why'd you come here? I'm sure I'm right. I don't understand. The coal I found G in back home. Yeah. The coal I took from that yard. That coal came from here. You sure? Of course I'm sure. I checked the four shipping records. Checked where every big coal shipment came from. Well, they're bringing you different samples. Yeah, and those ashes. The city powerhouse ashes. They've been burning this local coal all year, too. Well, how come they haven't mined coal commercially around here for quite some time? Oh, coal. Mine years ago shipped out in stockpiles. Oh, before the mountain came sliding down. Samples. Samples just don't jive. But I'm sure the coal I tested back home came from here. Come on. Where are we going? Mine. There must be a deep mine somewhere around. Wait, wait. That's where that coal I tested back home must have come from. They won't like it. I've got to find that coal. That's surface coal. Kind of picking up, bringing it in. Tell you, they don't want us monkeying around down underground. I want that particular coal. Where go, will you? Now, stay if you want to go along. He went. I couldn't stop him. I knew Ken knew him from way back. Nothing could stop him once he got an idea into his mind. He stepped out through the crazy angled doorway of the tilted old store building and out into the tilted streets. He put his hands in his pockets and tried to act casual. Then he dug his heels in and started to slip slide down the mountain. It was impossible to walk, not with an angle of 35 degrees. I saw his head and shoulders dip down out of sight. Then I looked around out of the broken window of the store. From all sides, the mountain men rose up. They dropped the hunks of coal they'd been picking up with. They picked up their guns and started stepping and sliding down after Ken. I ran. Ken kept yelling when I ran down the crazy, tilting mountain. Then I lost my balance and I started to slide. Ken! Ken! Ken! Moving. The whole face of the mountain, the ground skin, the skin was slowly coming off the mountain. The mountain was moving. I tried to hold on, reach out, hold, grab, but nothing was solid. Everything was going down under me, along with me. I was going round and round over and over, rolling, rolling slow like a heavy stone, like the rocks. Like the hunks of coal I saw coming up at me out of what was left of the thin dirt skin of the mountain. Coming up slow at me at my clothes, I kept rolling down toward the bottom of the mountain. And I saw Ken. I saw him sliding, sliding slow like in a dream and I saw the mountain men sliding too. Shooting, snap shooting at Ken below them, shooting every time they got the chance. Then the mountain stopped sliding. I felt the ground shudder and shake and it made my head spin and my eyes go out of focus and my stomach goes sick. I had to bend over, close my eyes. Everything was spinning, my head, my ears were aching. The sickness was coming and going. I pushed at my ears to stop them drumming, but I couldn't clear my ears. I opened my eyes and I saw Ken. The mountain men were standing all around them, holding their guns on him, but they looked sick too. They were pushing at their ears too with their free hands. I saw their mouths move, but I couldn't hear a thing. Death. I was deaf. The slide had made me deaf. I saw Ken yell back at them, yell right at the muscles of their guns. But I could see from their faces, they didn't hear either. I saw something else. I saw them lifting their guns. They were ready to kill. I yelled. I yelled loud as I could. I could feel my throat burn with the force of my shout. I still didn't hear a thing. I ran. Ran down best I could. I couldn't hear the sound of my footsteps on the dirt. The rocks and the pure cold jutting up through what was left of the bottom. I still couldn't hear a thing. I pushed past the guns and ran down to Ken. I ran into him. I was off balance. I grabbed onto him. He yelled at me, but I still didn't hear. Then I felt something in his pocket. The hearing aid. The one he'd asked me to buy back home. He looked at me. Then he grabbed it out and waved it at Yancey. He'd beckoned at Yancey. Then put it up to Yancey's ear. Why? I'll be danged. Lee. Patty. Badge. Move here. Listen to it. Put down the guns. I'll be done gone. Here, your plane is dead. It's no trick. That's why I'm here. Here, here, Patty. Huh? Huh? It's ridiculous. See? No trick. Why I'm here. Look. Hold on, hold on. No, no, no. No trick. Here. See? I'll open the milk. The metal case. I'll be here. To machine. To help people hear. Part of hearing people. We're only temporarily dead from the mountain slide. We're starting to get our hearing back already. But this helps people who don't hear so well all the time. Clary. Clary, she don't hear so good. Your wife? Clary. My old lady. Clary. Now, see? See this little piece of metal? Yeah. Well, that's what I'm here for. It's called germanium. Oh, skip the name. Anyway, this metal. You find it in coal. You do? I found it in coal that came from here years ago. Years ago. Coal right from here. It's worse open. Worth a lot to big companies, Jess. To make these little hearing farms. Radios. TV. Electrical things. You heard of that. Electric. Yeah. We was going to have it here someday. After the mine. Don't forget about the old mines. Ancient history. The coal's no good for that. Not worth mining for that. Just so coal's been trouble. But it's good for this. That's why I went down the mountain looking. The coal is right under here. Gonna be work again. Sure, Jess. The mountain slide exposed the old vein of coal Ken was looking for. That's what he means, Jess. Right in front of the hole. The old coal. Run back. Get the women, get the little children. Get the old folks run to the hauls and tell them. Tell them they's gonna be work again. And poke some, and poke some, and hog mullets. And lots of intles. Enough for everybody. And store clothes and school. And, and maybe even electric. It sure is, Jess. It sure is.