The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mighty Dead, by William Campbell Gault

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Title: The Mighty Dead

Author: William Campbell Gault

Release Date: March 9, 2010 [EBook #31577]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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the
mighty
dead

_by William Campbell Gault_

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_What would it be like to live in a world which has conquered the
near planets but abolished all literature? Bill Gault gives us a
look at a world like this--in a not too distant future which finds
all our pressure groups united to rule the roost._
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On its surface the choice was an easy one--Doak Parker's
career in Washington against a highly suspect country girl
he had just met.

Doak Parker was thinking of June, when the light flashed. He was
thinking of the two months' campaign and the very probable probability
of his knocking her off this week-end. It was going to be a conquest
to rank among his best. It was going to be....

The buzzer buzzed, the light flashed and the image of Ryder appeared
on his small desk-screen. Ryder said, "Come in, Doak. A little job for
the week-end."

_No_, Doak thought, _no, no, no! Not this week-end. Not this
particular triumphant looming week-end. No!_ He said, "Be right
there, Chief."

Ryder was sitting behind his desk when Doak entered. Ryder was a man
of about sixty, with a lined, weary face and a straggling mustache. He
nodded at the chair across the desk from him.

Ryder depressed a button on his desk and the screen beyond him began
to glow. Ryder said, "An electronic transcript of a phone call I
received this morning from former Senator Elmer Arnold. You know who
he is, I guess, Doak."

"Author of the Arnold Law?" Doak smiled. "Who doesn't?"

Then the image of former Senator Arnold came on the screen. He didn't
look any more than a hundred and ten years old, a withered and thin
lipped man with a comple