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Doctor Bird and Operative Carnes
Cold Light
How could a human body be found actually splintered—broken into sharp fragments like shattered glass! Once again Dr. Bird probes deep into an amazing mystery.
Length approx 7,000 words
Excerpt
“Confound it, Carnes, I am on my vacation!”
“I know it, Doctor, and I hate to disturb you, but I felt that I simply had to. I have one of the weirdest cases on my hands that I have ever been mixed up in and I think that you’ll forgive me for calling you when I tell you about it.”
Dr. Bird groaned into the telephone transmitter.
“I took a vacation last summer, or tried to, and you hauled me away from the best fishing I have found in years to help you on a case. This year I traveled all the way from Washington to San Francisco to get away from you and the very day that I get here you are after me. I won’t have anything to do with it. Where are you, anyway?”
“I am at Fallon, Nevada, Doctor. I’m sorry that you won’t help me out because the case promises to be unusually interesting. Let me at least tell you about it.”
Dr. Bird groaned louder than ever into the telephone transmitter.
“All right, go ahead and tell me about it if it will relieve your mind, but I have given you my final answer. I am not a bit interested in it.”
“That is quite all right, Doctor, I don’t expect you to touch it. I hope, however, that you will be able to give me an idea of where to start. Did you ever see a man’s body broken in pieces?”
“Do you mean badly smashed up?”
“No indeed, I mean just what I said, broken in pieces. Legs snapped off as though the entire flesh had become brittle.”
“No, I didn’t, and neither did anyone else.”
“I have seen it, Doctor.”
“Hooey! What had you been drinking?”
Operative Carnes of the United States Secret Service chuckled softly to himself. The voice of the famous scientist of the Bureau of Standards plainly showed an interest which was quite at variance with his words.
“I was quite sober, Doctor, and so was Hughes, and we both saw it.”
“Who is Hughes?”
“He is an air mail pilot, one of the crack fliers of the Transcontinental Airmail Corporation. Let me tell you the whole thing in order.”
“All right. I have a few minutes to spare, but I’ll warn you again that I don’t intend to touch the case.”
Length approx 7,000 words
Excerpt
“Confound it, Carnes, I am on my vacation!”
“I know it, Doctor, and I hate to disturb you, but I felt that I simply had to. I have one of the weirdest cases on my hands that I have ever been mixed up in and I think that you’ll forgive me for calling you when I tell you about it.”
Dr. Bird groaned into the telephone transmitter.
“I took a vacation last summer, or tried to, and you hauled me away from the best fishing I have found in years to help you on a case. This year I traveled all the way from Washington to San Francisco to get away from you and the very day that I get here you are after me. I won’t have anything to do with it. Where are you, anyway?”
“I am at Fallon, Nevada, Doctor. I’m sorry that you won’t help me out because the case promises to be unusually interesting. Let me at least tell you about it.”
Dr. Bird groaned louder than ever into the telephone transmitter.
“All right, go ahead and tell me about it if it will relieve your mind, but I have given you my final answer. I am not a bit interested in it.”
“That is quite all right, Doctor, I don’t expect you to touch it. I hope, however, that you will be able to give me an idea of where to start. Did you ever see a man’s body broken in pieces?”
“Do you mean badly smashed up?”
“No indeed, I mean just what I said, broken in pieces. Legs snapped off as though the entire flesh had become brittle.”
“No, I didn’t, and neither did anyone else.”
“I have seen it, Doctor.”
“Hooey! What had you been drinking?”
Operative Carnes of the United States Secret Service chuckled softly to himself. The voice of the famous scientist of the Bureau of Standards plainly showed an interest which was quite at variance with his words.
“I was quite sober, Doctor, and so was Hughes, and we both saw it.”
“Who is Hughes?”
“He is an air mail pilot, one of the crack fliers of the Transcontinental Airmail Corporation. Let me tell you the whole thing in order.”
“All right. I have a few minutes to spare, but I’ll warn you again that I don’t intend to touch the case.”
28 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 4, 2010
3 people want to read
About the author
S.P. Meek
100 books10 followersSterner St. Paul Meek was a US military chemist, early science fiction author, and children's author. He published much of his work first as Capt. S.P. Meek, then, briefly, as Major S.P. Meek and, after 1933, as Col. S.P. Meek. He also published one story as Sterner St. Paul.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 16, 2022
“I can’t make [it] out . . . It isn’t a parabola and it isn’t an ellipse. It must be a high degree sub-catenary or else built on a transcendental function.”
The brilliant and intrepid Dr. Bird of the Bureau of Standards is on vacation, but his friend and sidekick, the curious Carnes of the Secret Service cannot wait to interrupt Bird’s vacation with a new mystery unfolding itself.
“Confound it Carnes, I am on my vacation!” Bird shouts on the telephone.
Of course, Dr. Bird is too curious to put the kibash on learning more about this latest mystery, and soon Bird is winging his way to Fallon, Nevada to meet Carnes for their next adventure and to solve the mystery of the Cold Light.
Basically, Carnes is on a two-plane flight mission to Nevada from Washington. He and those in his plane witness the lead plane hit the ground and “literally burst into pieces,” but not in the expected manner. The fuselage, wings, tail . . . it all splintered apart. They land, and quickly discover the most mysterious and hard cold fact that “the bodies of the crew [in the lead plane] had broken into pieces, as though they had been made of glass.” They also noticed that the air is, well, a bit chilly.
Ah, finally, a little light is shed on why Carnes wants Bird involved.
In this short science fiction story, the reader is introduced to the diabolical Koskoff and his partner, a “John Smith.” It is from this “John Smith” that the reader learns more about the cold evil they concocted upon the world.
After the Cold Light is explained, Bird is ready to resume his vacation, but not before telling Carnes a thing or two. Carnes wants to know where Bird will be heading. Let's listen in on Bird's retort:
“That, Carnes, old dear, is none of your blankety blanked business.
This story was published in Astounding Stories Of Super Science, March 1930.
This is a fairly good and simple short science fiction tale, with clever imagination, a bit of physics thrown in, and some of the humor I expect from the writings of S.P. Meek.
The dénouement surprised me, though only a little bit, for it is fairly typical, yet the evil-doers’ identifications are a bit of a surprise.
I am getting a kick out these Dr. Bird-Operative Carnes short science fiction stories, and my goal is to find and read all that S.P. Meek (Sterner St. Paul Meek) wrote with these characters.
🟤 Read via Gutenberg Project.
The brilliant and intrepid Dr. Bird of the Bureau of Standards is on vacation, but his friend and sidekick, the curious Carnes of the Secret Service cannot wait to interrupt Bird’s vacation with a new mystery unfolding itself.
“Confound it Carnes, I am on my vacation!” Bird shouts on the telephone.
Of course, Dr. Bird is too curious to put the kibash on learning more about this latest mystery, and soon Bird is winging his way to Fallon, Nevada to meet Carnes for their next adventure and to solve the mystery of the Cold Light.
Basically, Carnes is on a two-plane flight mission to Nevada from Washington. He and those in his plane witness the lead plane hit the ground and “literally burst into pieces,” but not in the expected manner. The fuselage, wings, tail . . . it all splintered apart. They land, and quickly discover the most mysterious and hard cold fact that “the bodies of the crew [in the lead plane] had broken into pieces, as though they had been made of glass.” They also noticed that the air is, well, a bit chilly.
Ah, finally, a little light is shed on why Carnes wants Bird involved.
In this short science fiction story, the reader is introduced to the diabolical Koskoff and his partner, a “John Smith.” It is from this “John Smith” that the reader learns more about the cold evil they concocted upon the world.
After the Cold Light is explained, Bird is ready to resume his vacation, but not before telling Carnes a thing or two. Carnes wants to know where Bird will be heading. Let's listen in on Bird's retort:
“That, Carnes, old dear, is none of your blankety blanked business.
This story was published in Astounding Stories Of Super Science, March 1930.
This is a fairly good and simple short science fiction tale, with clever imagination, a bit of physics thrown in, and some of the humor I expect from the writings of S.P. Meek.
The dénouement surprised me, though only a little bit, for it is fairly typical, yet the evil-doers’ identifications are a bit of a surprise.
I am getting a kick out these Dr. Bird-Operative Carnes short science fiction stories, and my goal is to find and read all that S.P. Meek (Sterner St. Paul Meek) wrote with these characters.
🟤 Read via Gutenberg Project.
Displaying 1 of 1 review