Fletcher Pratt

“ She did as directed, pressed, and a wide door in the side of the projectile swung open. “Bright thought. No handles to break off.”
They stepped in, bending their heads to avoid the low ceiling.
“She isn't as roomy or comfortable or as heavily armored as the one I mean to build later,” explained Sherman, “but this is only an experimental craft, built in a hurry, so I had to take what I could get... Now here, Murray you sit here. Your job is going to be to mind the gravity beam that furnishes us our power. Every time you get the signal from me, you throw this power switch. ”

“ That must be the action of the beam on the nitrogen in the air.”
“There's a lot to be worked out in this thing, yet, though,” declared Ben, “and if you're right about the Lassans making a comeback, precious little time in which to work it out. For one thing, we've got to get a searchlight that will throw a narrow pencil of light for a long distance. I don't think those elephant-men are going to let us poke this thing under their noses. ”

“ Ben and Sherman were at a bench, working blowpipes, and shaping the delicate, iridescent glass of a long tube with a bulge at its center.
“Here you are,” said Murray Lee. “I had to row with the Surgeon-General of the Dutch Colonial contingent to get this. He wanted to use it on some tuberculosis experiment. But I convinced him that he wouldn't be worrying about 't. b.' if the Lassans came out of their hole and stood the army on its head. How goes the job?”
“Swell,” said Sherman. “Now you children run along and play. We're busy. ”

“ Now, they've got a way of producing, or mining, pure light, that is, pure matter in its simplest form. When it's released from pressure it becomes material and raises hell all over the shop. How they get the squeeze on it, I can't say. ”

“ It's big enough to hold all your foolishness, and if this thing is half as powerful as it looks, you ought to be able to harness it some way for a power-plant. Then you can plaster your rocket all over with armor. ”