...
The sky above the indistinct horizons of this cloud sea was at first
starry and then paler with a light that crept from north to east as the
dawn came on. The Milky Way was invisible in the blue, and the lesser
stars vanished. The face of the adventurer at the steering-wheel, darkly
visible ever and again by the oval greenish glow of the compass face,
had something of that firm beauty which all concentrated purpose gives,
and something of the happiness of an idiot child that has at last got
hold of the matches. His companion, a less imaginative type, sat with
his legs spread wide over the long, coffin-shaped box which contained
in its compartments the three atomic bombs, the new bombs that would
continue to explode indefinitely and which no one so far had ever seen
in action. Hitherto Carolinum, their essential substance, had been
tested only in almost infinitesimal quantities within steel chambers
embedded in lead. Beyond the thought of great destruction slumbering
in the black spheres between his legs, and a keen resolve to follow out
very exactly the instructions that had been given him, the man's mind
was a blank. His aquiline profile against the starlight expressed
nothing but a profound gloom.
The sky below grew clearer as the Central European capital was
approached.
Pages:
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107