Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy

Nordenholt's Million

I suppose that in the days before the catastrophe I was a very fair representative of the better type of business man. I had been successful in my own line, which was the application of mass-production methods to a better pattern of motor-car than had yet been dealt with upon...

Chapters

12. CHAPTER XII

The aeroplane which carried me southward alighted on the Hendon flying-ground when dusk was falling. As we crossed Hertfordshire I had seen in front of me, to the south-east, a...

6. CHAPTER VI

With my entry into Nordenholt’s house I hoped to gain a clearer insight into certain sides of his character; for the possessions which a man accumulates about him serve as an in...

5. CHAPTER V

Probably with a view to avoiding the attention of the Press, the meeting was held elsewhere than at No. 10 Downing Street. I found myself in what looked like a Board meeting-roo...

8. CHAPTER VIII

Hitherto my narrative has had a certain unity; for I have been describing a chain of events, each of which followed naturally from its fore-runners; but now comes a bifurcation....

13. CHAPTER XIII

When I saw Nordenholt again after my return, I found that I had no need to describe my experiences. He seemed to know exactly where I had been and what had happened to me. I sus...

18. CHAPTER XVIII

I have set down all my doubts as to the wisdom of Nordenholt’s treatment of the Reverend John; and it is only right to place on the other side the fact that events proved he had...

16. CHAPTER XVI

I have no wish to dwell overmuch upon my own affairs in this narrative; for they formed a mere ripple on the surface of the torrent of events which was bearing all of us along i...

15. CHAPTER XV

I think I have made it clear that when I took over the Reconstruction at Nordenholt’s request I did so in a disinterested spirit, by which I mean that no personal aims of my own...

14. CHAPTER XIV

My narrative has hitherto been confined to affairs in the British Isles; but to give a complete picture of the time I must now deal, even though very briefly, with the effects o...

1. CHAPTER I

I suppose that in the days before the catastrophe I was a very fair representative of the better type of business man. I had been successful in my own line, which was the applic...

9. CHAPTER IX

In order to understand the impression which that evening left upon me, it is necessary to bear in mind the conditions under which I had been living for the last few weeks. In th...

17. CHAPTER XVII

After Elsa had rejected any further collaboration with me, I was forced at times to consult Nordenholt upon certain points in my schemes which seemed to me to require the critic...

7. CHAPTER VII

Of all the incidents in that afternoon, I think the sight of these placards brought home to me most forcibly two of the salient characteristics of Nordenholt’s many-sided mind:...

2. CHAPTER II

Next morning I still felt the effects of the shock; and decided not to go to my office. I stayed indoors all day. When the evening papers came, I found in them brief accounts of...

19. CHAPTER XIX

Although Barclay’s work furnished us with the means of tapping the stores of energy which lie imprisoned within the atoms of elementary matter, it did not place us immediately i...

3. CHAPTER III

At this point, I remember, the long spell of dry weather reached its end. A heavy series of thunderstorms marked its termination; and for three days the country was deluged with...

10. CHAPTER X

In this narrative I must give some account of the happenings in the outer world; for, without this, the picture which I am attempting to draw would be distorted in its perspecti...

11. CHAPTER XI

To explain how I came to witness the spectacle of London in its extremity, I must go back to the evening at Nordenholt’s which I have already described. He persisted in his proj...

4. CHAPTER IV

In dealing with the subsequent stage of affairs in this country, I feel myself at a loss. Matters of fact, sequences of events, definite incidents in a chain of affairs: all the...

20. CHAPTER XX

Immediately after the death of Nordenholt, I took over the control of the Area and instituted the great reorganisation forced upon us by the new conditions. Almost our last rese...