Central Kansas Library System

When Captain Gerilleau received instructions to take his new gunboat, the Benjamin Constant, to Badama on the Batemo arm of the Guaramadema and there assist the inhabitants against a plague of ants, he suspected the authorities of mockery. His promotion had been romantic and irregular, the affections of a prominent Brazilian lady and the captain's liquid eyes had played a part in the process, and the Diario and O Futuro had been lamentably disrespectful...

What these elves were like I have failed to gather, so vague and imperfect is his vocabulary, and so unobservant of all minor detail does he seem to have been. They were clothed in something very light and beautiful, that was neither wool, nor silk, nor leaves, nor the petals of flowers. They stood all about him as he sat and waked, and down the glade towards him, down a glow-worm avenue and fronted by a star, came at once that Fairy Lady who is the...

The man with the white face entered the carriage at Rugby. He moved slowly in spite of the urgency of his porter, and even while he was still on the platform I noted how ill he seemed. He dropped into the corner over against me with a sigh, made an incomplete attempt to arrange his travelling shawl, and became motionless, with his eyes staring vacantly. Presently he was moved by a sense of my observation, looked up at me, and put out a spiritless...

This vintage book contains H. G. Wells' 1903 short story, 'The Land Ironclads'. It was first published in the 'Strand Magazine' and features "land ironclads," 100-foot-long war machines that are equipped with remotely controlled guns and are designed to house riflemen, engineers, and a captain. Unsurprisingly, the story was a contributing factor to Wells' reputation as a prophetic writer after tanks first appeared on the battlefield in 1916. "The...

Two of the greatest science fiction classics of all time...in one collection! H.G. Wells (1866 -1946) - the master of the genre - created his "scientific romances" and set the standard for futuristic literature that teemed with both social commentary and a prescient view of the world to come. Here, we present "The Island of Doctor Moreau" and "The War of the Worlds," two of the most popular and thrilling science fiction novels ever created...together...

We had golfed until golfing was invisible; we had dined, and we were in that mood of tranquil kindliness when men will suffer a story. When Clayton began to tell one, we naturally supposed he was lying. It may be that indeed, he was lying-of that, the reader will speedily be able to judge as well as I. He began, it is true, with an air of matter-of-fact anecdote, but that we thought was only the incurable artifice of the man.

An anarchist intent on wreaking havoc throughout London steals a sample of deadly virus from an unsuspecting scientist.

After his legs were set, they carried Bailey into the study and put him on a couch before the open window. There he lay, a live-even a feverish man down to the loins, and below that a double-barrelled mummy swathed in white wrappings. He tried to read, even tried to write a little, but most of the time he looked out of the window.

I made the acquaintance of Pyecraft in this very smoking-room. I was a young, nervous new member, and he saw it. I was sitting all alone, wishing I knew more of the members, and suddenly he came, a great rolling front of chins and abdomina, towards me, and grunted and sat down in a chair close by me and wheezed for a space, and scraped for a space with a match and lit a cigar, and then addressed me.

The buying of orchids always has in it a certain speculative flavor. You have before you the brown shriveled lump of tissue, and for the rest you must trust your judgment, or the auctioneer, or your good luck, as your taste may incline. The plant may be moribund or dead, or it may be just a respectable purchase, fair value for your money, or perhaps-for the thing has happened again and again.