Edgar Wallace

“ Jimmy wondered who he was talking about.
“He is very clearly visible to-night,” Mr. Chapelle went on, and then Jimmy knew that he was talking of the comet. “But I am afraid he will not impress you.”
“I did not know there was a comet visible,” said Jimmy.
“Very few people do,” said the prime minister, “although one or two indiscreet references appeared in the newspapers, emanating from foreign correspondents; that is why we established the press censorship. It is a curious comet, because it has little or no tail, and that is probably why it has escaped general observation.” ”

“ It was near to London, but what was more important, it was within a few minutes' walk of the royal observatory.
“It was after we had installed ourselves that the astronomer royal suggested we should send for Gerald van Roon. This course was heartily approved both by Maggerson and by myself, though you, Lord Harry, objected. I can only wish most fervently,” said the prime minister, “that we had listened to your objections. Lord Harry pointed out that Gerald was a man of extremely high principles, and that he had very definite views on the duty of science to the public. ”

“ He always was a violent, undisciplined man.”
There was a long silence broken by the prime minister.
“That man must be found,” he said quietly. “He may be concealed in this very house. You have neither seen nor heard anything, Maggerson?”
The great Maggerson shook his head. Apparently he was the only one who spent the whole of his time at Warden's Lodge.
“We had better make a search,” said Lord Harry shortly. “You and your friend come along, Mr. Blake.”
Jimmy followed him into the broad paneled hall and up the rickety stairs. Ferdie brought up the rear carrying an oil lamp. ”

“ We overcame Lord Harry's objections, and Harry and Stope-Kendrick themselves went across to your house and delivered the message, returning with Gerald van Roon. In the meantime, the bishop had gone to arouse the government printer, Mr. Sennett here, whom you know. We felt, as a preliminary measure, that it was necessary to warn military authorities that some sort of trouble might be expected. What we most feared was the news leaking out that such a collision was inevitable. ”

“ Beside myself and Maggerson, there was Lord Harry Weltman, Mr. Stope-Kendrick, and the bishop in the room.
“It is rather difficult to explain to a layman, one who is apparently not interested in mathematics, the exact functions of the table of variations with which the name of Maggerson is associated. By its use it is possible to make the most exact—indeed, the only exact—astronomical calculations. that can be made. ”

“ Those calculations, as you probably know, if worked out without the aid of what, for a better term, I will call a mathematical ready reckoner, would take years to accomplish, and it was with the object of measuring the immeasurable, that Newton and Leibnitz produced their calculi. ”

“ There is no terror in death—swift, painless, universal,” he said quietly, “but there is a terror of fear which would drive men and women frantic, which would reduce the world to a shrieking madhouse. Mr. ”