



Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









            THE CRACK OF DOOM


                   BY

              ROBERT CROMIE
 _Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc._


            _SECOND EDITION_


                 LONDON
            DIGBY, LONG & CO.
 18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
                  1895




PREFACE


The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were
given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance
which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can
be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of
names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes
nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to
consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have
been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the
narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He
does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all
which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind
to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the
proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will
produce.

                                                        ROBERT CROMIE.

BELFAST, _May, 1895_.




CONTENTS


  CHAP.                                  PAGE

     I. THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!             1

    II. A STRANGE EXPERIMENT              