you."

"Then let's go," Dorle said. "Let's go back home."

The ship roared up, flying over the ruins of the city. It turned in a
huge arc and then shot off beyond the horizon, heading into outer space.

* * * * *

Down below, in the center of the ruined city, a single half-broken
detector vane moved slightly, catching the roar of the ship. The base of
the great gun throbbed painfully, straining to turn. After a moment a
red warning light flashed on down inside its destroyed works.

And a long way off, a hundred miles from the city, another warning light
flashed on, far underground. Automatic relays flew into action. Gears
turned, belts whined. On the ground above a section of metal slag
slipped back. A ramp appeared.

A moment later a small cart rushed to the surface.

The cart turned toward the city. A second cart appeared behind it. It
was loaded with wiring cables. Behind it a third cart came, loaded with
telescopic tube sights. And behind came more carts, some with relays,
some with firing controls, some with tools and parts, screws and bolts,
pins and nuts. The final one contained atomic warheads.

The carts lined up behind the first one, the lead cart. The lead cart
started off, across the frozen ground, bumping calmly along, followed by
the others. Moving toward the city.

To the damaged gun.

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Planet Stories_ September 1952.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gun, by Philip K. Dick

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GUN ***

***** This file should be named 29132.txt or 29132.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/3/29132/

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of U