The Disintegration Machine E-Book

Arthur Conan Doyle

• Herausgeber: Al-Mashreq eBookstore
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 29

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

In The Disintegration Machine, Professor Challenger investigates a sinister invention capable of destroying matter. This short but thrilling tale combines science fiction with satire, as Challenger confronts both the potential and peril of unchecked innovation. Packed with wit, danger, and Challenger's trademark arrogance, it's a compact adventure of scientific suspense.

Leseprobe

The Disintegration Machine

The Professor Challenger Stories

By: Arthur Conan Doyle

Prepared and edited by: Rafat Allam

Copyright © 2025 by Al-Mashreq eBookstore

First published in The Strand Magazine, January 1929

No part of this publication may be reproduced whole or in part in any form without the prior written permission of the author

Table of Contents

The Disintegration Machine

The Disintegration Machine

1

2

Arthur Conan Doyle

Early Life and Education

Medical Studies and Early Career

The Birth of Sherlock Holmes

Other Literary Works

Personal Life

Spiritualism and Later Life

Honours and Legacy

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Cover

The Disintegration Machine

First published in The Strand Magazine, January 1929 Published in Hearst's International and Cosmopolitan February 1929 as "The Man Who Would Wreck the World" Collected in The Maracot Deep and Other Stories, 1929

The Strand Magazine, January 1929 with "The Disintegration Machine"

1

PROFESSOR CHALLENGER was in the worst possible humour. As I stood at the door of his study, my hand upon the handle and my foot upon the mat, I heard a monologue which ran like this, the words booming and reverberating through the house:

'Yes, I say it is the second wrong call. The second in one morning. Do you imagine that a man of science is to be distracted from essential work by the constant interference of some idiot at the end of a wire? I will not have it. Send this instant for the manager. Oh! you are the manager. Well, why don't you manage? Yes, you certainly manage to distract me from work the importance of which your mind is incapable of understanding. I want the superintendent. He is away? So I should imagine. I will carry you to the law courts if this occurs again. Crowing cocks have been adjudicated upon. I myself have obtained a judgment. If crowing cocks, why not jangling bells? The case is clear. A written apology. Very good. I will consider it. Good morning.'

It was at this point that I ventured to make my entrance. It was certainly an unfortunate moment. I confronted him as he turned from the telephone—a lion in its wrath. His huge black beard was bristling, his great chest was heaving with indignation, and his arrogant grey eyes swept me up and down as the backwash of his anger fell upon me.

'Infernal, idle, overpaid rascals!' he boomed. 'I could hear them laughing while I was making my just complaint. There is a conspiracy to annoy me. And now, young Malone, you arrive to complete a disastrous morning. Are you here, may I ask, on your own account, or has your rag commissioned you to obtain an interview? As a friend you are privileged—as a journalist you are outside the pale.'

I was hunting in my pocket for McArdle's letter when suddenly some new grievance came to his memory. His great hairy hands fumbled about among the papers upon his desk and finally extracted a press cutting.

'You have been good enough to allude to me in one of your recent lucubrations,' he said, shaking the paper at me. 'It was in the course of your somewhat fatuous remarks concerning the recent Saurian remains discovered in the Solenhofen Slates. You began a paragraph with the words: "Professor G.E. Challenger, who is among our greatest living scientists—"'

'Well, sir?' I asked.

'Why these invidious qualifications and limitations? Perhaps you can mention who these other predominant scientific men may be to whom you impute equality, or possibly superiority to myself?'