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    The Radiant Shell
    The Radiant Shell
    The Radiant Shell
    Ebook49 pages36 minutes

    The Radiant Shell

    By Paul Ernst

    ()

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    The Radiant Shell
    Author

    Paul Ernst

    (Karl Friedrich) Paul Ernst, Germany, 1866-1933.

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      Book preview

      The Radiant Shell - Paul Ernst

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Radiant Shell, by Paul Ernst

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Radiant Shell

      Author: Paul Ernst

      Release Date: July 30, 2007 [EBook #22171]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIANT SHELL ***

      Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      The Radiant Shell

      By Paul Ernst

      [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories January 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

      The man on the metal plate was vanishing.

      And that, gentlemen, said the Secretary of War, is the situation. Arvania has stolen the Ziegler plans and formulae. With their acquisition it becomes the most powerful nation on earth. The Ziegler plans are at present in the Arvanian Embassy, but they will be smuggled out of the country soon. Within a month of their landing in Arvania, war will be declared against us. That means—he glanced at the tense faces around the conference table—that we have about three months to live as a nation—unless we can get those plans!

      There was a hushed, appalled silence, broken at last by General Forsyte.

      Nonsense! How can a postage-stamp country like Arvania really threaten us?

      The day has passed, General, said the Secretary, when a nation's power is reckoned by its size. The Ziegler heat ray is the deadliest weapon yet invented. A thousand men with a dozen of the ray-projectors can reduce us to smoking ruins while remaining far outside the range of our guns. No! I tell you that declaration of war by Arvania will be followed by the downfall of the United States inside of three months!

      Again the hushed, strained silence descended over the conference table, while one white-faced man gazed at another and all speculated on the incredible possibility of a world in which there was no United States of America.

      We must get the plans, nodded Forsyte, convinced at last. But how? March openly on the Arvanian Embassy?

      "No, that would be declaration of war on our part. The World Court, which knows nothing of the Ziegler plans, would set the League at our throats."

      Send volunteers unofficially to raid the place?

      Impossible. There is a heavy guard in the Arvanian Embassy; and I more than suspect the place bristles with machine guns.

      "What are we to do?" demanded Forsyte.

      The Secretary seemed to have been waiting for that final question.

      I have had an odd and desperate plan submitted me from an outside source. I could not pass it without your approval. I will let you hear it from the lips of the planner.

      He pressed a buzzer. Bring Mr. Winter in, he told his

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