The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Drought, by Sterner St. Paul Meek

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Title: The Great Drought

Author: Sterner St. Paul Meek

Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29326]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Astounding Stories May 1932.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration: _A man leaped in and made some adjustments._]

The Great Drought

By Capt. S. P. Meek

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Another episode in Dr. Bird's extraordinary duel with the
scientific wizard Saranoff.]

"Is the maneuver progressing as you wish. Dr. Bird?" asked the Chief
of the Air Corps.

The famous scientist lowered his binoculars and smiled.

"Exactly, General," he replied. "They are keeping a splendid line."

"It is the greatest concentration of air force that this country has
ever seen," said General Merton proudly.

With a nod, Dr. Bird raised his glasses to his eyes and resumed his
steady gaze. Five thousand feet below and two miles ahead of the huge
transport plane which flew the flag of the Chief of the Air Corps, a
long line of airplanes stretched away to the north and to the south.
Six hundred and seventy-two planes, the entire First Air Division of
the United States Army, were deployed in line at hundred-yard
intervals, covering a front of nearly forty miles. Fifteen hundred
feet above the ground, the line roared steadily westward over Maryland
at ninety miles an hour. At ten-second intervals, a puff of black dust
came from a discharge tube mounted on the rear of each plane. The dust
was whirled about for a moment by the exhaust, and then spread out in
a thin layer, marking the path of the fleet.

"I hope the observers on the planes are keeping careful notes of the
behavior of those dust