
A modest man named John Smith finds his ordinary life upended when a charismatic woman insists he is Achilles Maravain—a legendary figure whose very touch can end lives and who is supposedly immune to any weapon. The claim draws the attention of the FBI, who arrest him on charges of murder, seditious conduct, and treason. Rather than submit, Smith refuses to go quietly, hinting at a power far beyond the ordinary.
Escaping the initial confrontation, he heads for the Lincoln Heights jail, a stark, steel‑bound institution that becomes the stage for his uncanny abilities. In a surreal showdown, he creates an invisible barrier that traps the very lawmen who try to enter, effectively imprisoning the prison itself. Listeners are drawn into a bizarre, tongue‑in‑cheek world where identity, authority, and reality bend in unexpected ways.
Language
en
Duration
~24 minutes (23K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
New York, NY: Columbia Publications Inc., 1942.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2024-03-21
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
1923–1991
An early science-fiction fan and occasional pulp writer, he left behind a small but curious body of work that still turns up in vintage SF circles. His best-known stories appeared in the late 1930s and early 1940s, including the novella Gangway for Homer.
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