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Title: The Crack of Doom

Author: Robert Cromie

Release Date: September 8, 2008 [EBook #26563]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE CRACK OF DOOM

BY

ROBERT CROMIE
_Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc._

_SECOND EDITION_

LONDON
DIGBY, LONG & CO.
18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1895

PREFACE

The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were
given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance
which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can
be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of
names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes
nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to
consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have
been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the
narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He
does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all
which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind
to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the
proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will
produce.

ROBERT CROMIE.

BELFAST, _May, 1895_.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE! 1

II. A STRANGE EXPERIMENT 10

III. "IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE" 21

IV. GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED 32

V. THE MURDER CLUB