The Crack of Doom

THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE! "The Universe is a mistake!" Thus spake Herbert Brande, a passenger on the _Majestic_, making for Queenstown Harbour, one evening early in the past year. ...

A STRANGE EXPERIMENT. Soon after my arrival in London, I called on Brande, at the address he had given me in Brook Street. He received me with the pleasant affability which a man ...

"IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE." Amongst the letters lying on my breakfast-table a few days after the meeting was one addressed in an unfamiliar hand. The writing was bold, and formed li...

GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED. "It is a good thing to be alive," Natalie Brande repeated slowly, gazing, as it were, far off through her half-closed eyelids. Then turning to me and look...

THE MURDER CLUB. "Delany was the last man who quitted us--you see I use your expression again. I like it," Brande said quietly, watching me as he spoke. I stood staring at the sl...

A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM. I left the room and hurried outside without any positive plan for my movements. My brain was in such a whirl I could form no connected train of thought. The...

GUILTY! As to protecting Natalie Brande from her brother and the fanatics with whom he associated, it was now plain that I was powerless. And what guarantee had I that she herself...

THE WOKING MYSTERY. She knew all. Then she was a murderess--or in sympathy with murderers. My arms fell from her. I drew back shuddering. I dared not look in her lying eyes, which...

CUI BONO? When I arrived at the Society's rooms on the evening for which I had an invitation, I found them pleasantly lighted. The various scientific diagrams and instruments had ...

FORCE--A REMEDY. "Get me out of this, I am stifled--ill," Miss Metford said, in a low voice to me. As we were hurrying from the room, Brande and his sister, who had joined him, m...

MORITURI TE SALUTANT. We had been sitting on deck chairs smoking and talking for a couple of hours after the late dinner, which was served as soon as the vessel was well out to se...

"NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE." For some days afterwards our voyage was uneventful, and the usual shipboard amusements were requisitioned to while away the tedious hours. The French fis...

MISS METFORD'S PLAN. We coaled at Port Said like any ordinary steamer. Although I had more than once made the Red Sea voyage, I had never before taken the slightest interest in th...

ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS. At one o'clock in the morning I arose, dressed hurriedly, drew on a pair of felt slippers, and put a revolver in my pocket. It was then time to put Edith...

"IF NOT TOO LATE!" When I came on deck next morning the coast of Arabia was rising, a thin thread of hazy blue between the leaden grey of the sea and the soft grey of the sky. The...

L5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP. Brande was asleep when I entered his cabin. His writing-table was covered with scraps of paper on which he had been scribbling. My name was on every scra...

"THIS EARTH SHALL DIE." My memory does not serve me well in the scenes which immediately preceded the closing of the drama in which Brande was chief actor. It is doubtless the tra...

THE FLIGHT. I led the girls hurriedly to the horses. When they were mounted on the ponies, I gave the bridle-reins of the bay horse--whose size and strength were necessary for my ...

THE CATASTROPHE. The _Esmeralda_ was putting out to sea when I thought of a last expedient to draw the attention of her captain. Filling my revolver with cartridges which I had lo...

CONCLUSION. Taking up my girl's body in my arms, I stumbled over the wreck-encumbered deck, and bore it to the state-room she had occupied on the outward voyage. Percival was too ...

remarkable picturesqueness, and the experiences of mortals in Mars are described with considerable humour. _Review of Reviews._--An unquestionably interesting story. The adventure...