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diff --git a/29132.txt b/29132.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6275fc --- /dev/null +++ b/29132.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1106 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gun, by Philip K. Dick + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Gun + +Author: Philip K. Dick + +Illustrator: Herman Vestal + +Release Date: June 15, 2009 [EBook #29132] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GUN *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE GUN + +By PHILIP K. DICK + + + _Nothing moved or stirred. Everything was silent, dead. Only the gun + showed signs of life ... and the trespassers had wrecked that for + all time. The return journey to pick up the treasure would be a + cinch ... they smiled._ + + +The Captain peered into the eyepiece of the telescope. He adjusted the +focus quickly. + +"It was an atomic fission we saw, all right," he said presently. He +sighed and pushed the eyepiece away. "Any of you who wants to look may +do so. But it's not a pretty sight." + +"Let me look," Tance the archeologist said. He bent down to look, +squinting. "Good Lord!" He leaped violently back, knocking against +Dorle, the Chief Navigator. + +"Why did we come all this way, then?" Dorle asked, looking around at the +other men. "There's no point even in landing. Let's go back at once." + +"Perhaps he's right," the biologist murmured. "But I'd like to look for +myself, if I may." He pushed past Tance and peered into the sight. + +He saw a vast expanse, an endless surface of gray, stretching to the +edge of the planet. At first he thought it was water but after a moment +he realized that it was slag, pitted, fused slag, broken only by hills +of rock jutting up at intervals. Nothing moved or stirred. Everything +was silent, dead. + +"I see," Fomar said, backing away from the eyepiece. "Well, I won't find +any legumes there." He tried to smile, but his lips stayed unmoved. He +stepped away and stood by himself, staring past the others. + +"I wonder what the atmospheric sample will show," Tance said. + +"I think I can guess," the Captain answered. "Most of the atmosphere is +poisoned. But didn't we expect all this? I don't see why we're so +surprised. A fission visible as far away as our system must be a +terrible thing." + +He strode off down the corridor, dignified and expressionless. They +watched him disappear into the control room. + +As the Captain closed the door the young woman turned. "What did the +telescope show? Good or bad?" + +"Bad. No life could possibly exist. Atmosphere poisoned, water +vaporized, all the land fused." + +"Could they have gone underground?" + +The Captain slid back the port window so that the surface of the planet +under them was visible. The two of them stared down, silent and +disturbed. Mile after mile of unbroken ruin stretched out, blackened +slag, pitted and scarred, and occasional heaps of rock. + +Suddenly Nasha jumped. "Look! Over there, at the edge. Do you see it?" + +They stared. Something rose up, not rock, not an accidental formation. +It was round, a circle of dots, white pellets on the dead skin of the +planet. A city? Buildings of some kind? + +"Please turn the ship," Nasha said excitedly. She pushed her dark hair +from her face. "Turn the ship and let's see what it is!" + +The ship turned, changing its course. As they came over the white dots +the Captain lowered the ship, dropping it down as much as he dared. +"Piers," he said. "Piers of some sort of stone. Perhaps poured +artificial stone. The remains of a city." + +"Oh, dear," Nasha murmured. "How awful." She watched the ruins disappear +behind them. In a half-circle the white squares jutted from the slag, +chipped and cracked, like broken teeth. + +"There's nothing alive," the Captain said at last. "I think we'll go +right back; I know most of the crew want to. Get the Government +Receiving Station on the sender and tell them what we found, and that +we--" + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +He staggered. + +The first atomic shell had struck the ship, spinning it around. The +Captain fell to the floor, crashing into the control table. Papers and +instruments rained down on him. As he started to his feet the second +shell struck. The ceiling cracked open, struts and girders twisted and +bent. The ship shuddered, falling suddenly down, then righting itself as +automatic controls took over. + +The Captain lay on the floor by the smashed control board. In the corner +Nasha struggled to free herself from the debris. + +Outside the men were already sealing the gaping leaks in the side of the +ship, through which the precious air was rushing, dissipating into the +void beyond. "Help me!" Dorle was shouting. "Fire over here, wiring +ignited." Two men came running. Tance watched helplessly, his eyeglasses +broken and bent. + +"So there is life here, after all," he said, half to himself. "But how +could--" + +"Give us a hand," Fomar said, hurrying past. "Give us a hand, we've got +to land the ship!" + +It was night. A few stars glinted above them, winking through the +drifting silt that blew across the surface of the planet. + +Dorle peered out, frowning. "What a place to be stuck in." He resumed +his work, hammering the bent metal hull of the ship back into place. He +was wearing a pressure suit; there were still many small leaks, and +radioactive particles from the atmosphere had already found their way +into the ship. + +Nasha and Fomar were sitting at the table in the control room, pale and +solemn, studying the inventory lists. + +"Low on carbohydrates," Fomar said. "We can break down the stored fats +if we want to, but--" + +"I wonder if we could find anything outside." Nasha went to the window. +"How uninviting it looks." She paced back and forth, very slender and +small, her face dark with fatigue. "What do you suppose an exploring +party would find?" + +Fomar shrugged. "Not much. Maybe a few weeds growing in cracks here and +there. Nothing we could use. Anything that would adapt to this +environment would be toxic, lethal." + +Nasha paused, rubbing her cheek. There was a deep scratch there, still +red and swollen. "Then how do you explain--_it_? According to your +theory the inhabitants must have died in their skins, fried like yams. +But who fired on us? Somebody detected us, made a decision, aimed a +gun." + +"And gauged distance," the Captain said feebly from the cot in the +corner. He turned toward them. "That's the part that worries me. The +first shell put us out of commission, the second almost destroyed us. +They were well aimed, perfectly aimed. We're not such an easy target." + +"True." Fomar nodded. "Well, perhaps we'll know the answer before we +leave here. What a strange situation! All our reasoning tells us that no +life could exist; the whole planet burned dry, the atmosphere itself +gone, completely poisoned." + +"The gun that fired the projectiles survived," Nasha said. "Why not +people?" + +"It's not the same. Metal doesn't need air to breathe. Metal doesn't get +leukemia from radioactive particles. Metal doesn't need food and water." + +There was silence. + +"A paradox," Nasha said. "Anyhow, in the morning I think we should send +out a search party. And meanwhile we should keep on trying to get the +ship in condition for the trip back." + +"It'll be days before we can take off," Fomar said. "We should keep +every man working here. We can't afford to send out a party." + +Nasha smiled a little. "We'll send you in the first party. Maybe you can +discover--what was it you were so interested in?" + +"Legumes. Edible legumes." + +"Maybe you can find some of them. Only--" + +"Only what?" + +"Only watch out. They fired on us once without even knowing who we were +or what we came for. Do you suppose that they fought with each other? +Perhaps they couldn't imagine anyone being friendly, under any +circumstances. What a strange evolutionary trait, inter-species warfare. +Fighting within the race!" + +"We'll know in the morning," Fomar said. "Let's get some sleep." + + * * * * * + +The sun came up chill and austere. The three people, two men and a +woman, stepped through the port, dropping down on the hard ground below. + +"What a day," Dorle said grumpily. "I said how glad I'd be to walk on +firm ground again, but--" + +"Come on," Nasha said. "Up beside me. I want to say something to you. +Will you excuse us, Tance?" + +Tance nodded gloomily. Dorle caught up with Nasha. They walked together, +their metal shoes crunching the ground underfoot. Nasha glanced at him. + +"Listen. The Captain is dying. No one knows except the two of us. By the +end of the day-period of this planet he'll be dead. The shock did +something to his heart. He was almost sixty, you know." + +Dorle nodded. "That's bad. I have a great deal of respect for him. You +will be captain in his place, of course. Since you're vice-captain +now--" + +"No. I prefer to see someone else lead, perhaps you or Fomar. I've been +thinking over the situation and it seems to me that I should declare +myself mated to one of you, whichever of you wants to be captain. Then I +could devolve the responsibility." + +"Well, I don't want to be captain. Let Fomar do it." + +Nasha studied him, tall and blond, striding along beside her in his +pressure suit. "I'm rather partial to you," she said. "We might try it +for a time, at least. But do as you like. Look, we're coming to +something." + +They stopped walking, letting Tance catch up. In front of them was some +sort of a ruined building. Dorle stared around thoughtfully. + +"Do you see? This whole place is a natural bowl, a huge valley. See how +the rock formations rise up on all sides, protecting the floor. Maybe +some of the great blast was deflected here." + +They wandered around the ruins, picking up rocks and fragments. "I think +this was a farm," Tance said, examining a piece of wood. "This was part +of a tower windmill." + +"Really?" Nasha took the stick and turned it over. "Interesting. But +let's go; we don't have much time." + +"Look," Dorle said suddenly. "Off there, a long way off. Isn't that +something?" He pointed. + +Nasha sucked in her breath. "The white stones." + +"What?" + +Nasha looked up at Dorle. "The white stones, the great broken teeth. We +saw them, the Captain and I, from the control room." She touched Dorle's +arm gently. "That's where they fired from. I didn't think we had landed +so close." + +"What is it?" Tance said, coming up to them. "I'm almost blind without +my glasses. What do you see?" + +"The city. Where they fired from." + +"Oh." All three of them stood together. "Well, let's go," Tance said. +"There's no telling what we'll find there." Dorle frowned at him. + +"Wait. We don't know what we would be getting into. They must have +patrols. They probably have seen us already, for that matter." + +"They probably have seen the ship itself," Tance said. "They probably +know right now where they can find it, where they can blow it up. So +what difference does it make whether we go closer or not?" + +"That's true," Nasha said. "If they really want to get us we haven't a +chance. We have no armaments at all; you know that." + +"I have a hand weapon." Dorle nodded. "Well, let's go on, then. I +suppose you're right, Tance." + +"But let's stay together," Tance said nervously. "Nasha, you're going +too fast." + +Nasha looked back. She laughed. "If we expect to get there by nightfall +we must go fast." + + * * * * * + +They reached the outskirts of the city at about the middle of the +afternoon. The sun, cold and yellow, hung above them in the colorless +sky. Dorle stopped at the top of a ridge overlooking the city. + +"Well, there it is. What's left of it." + +There was not much left. The huge concrete piers which they had noticed +were not piers at all, but the ruined foundations of buildings. They had +been baked by the searing heat, baked and charred almost to the ground. +Nothing else remained, only this irregular circle of white squares, +perhaps four miles in diameter. + +Dorle spat in disgust. "More wasted time. A dead skeleton of a city, +that's all." + +"But it was from here that the firing came," Tance murmured. "Don't +forget that." + +"And by someone with a good eye and a great deal of experience," Nasha +added. "Let's go." + +They walked into the city between the ruined buildings. No one spoke. +They walked in silence, listening to the echo of their footsteps. + +"It's macabre," Dorle muttered. "I've seen ruined cities before but they +died of old age, old age and fatigue. This was killed, seared to death. +This city didn't die--it was murdered." + +"I wonder what the city was called," Nasha said. She turned aside, going +up the remains of a stairway from one of the foundations. "Do you think +we might find a signpost? Some kind of plaque?" + +She peered into the ruins. + +"There's nothing there," Dorle said impatiently. "Come on." + +"Wait." Nasha bent down, touching a concrete stone. "There's something +inscribed on this." + +"What is it?" Tance hurried up. He squatted in the dust, running his +gloved fingers over the surface of the stone. "Letters, all right." He +took a writing stick from the pocket of his pressure suit and copied the +inscription on a bit of paper. Dorle glanced over his shoulder. The +inscription was: + + FRANKLIN APARTMENTS + +"That's this city," Nasha said softly. "That was its name." + +Tance put the paper in his pocket and they went on. After a time Dorle +said, "Nasha, you know, I think we're being watched. But don't look +around." + +The woman stiffened. "Oh? Why do you say that? Did you see something?" + +"No. I can feel it, though. Don't you?" + +Nasha smiled a little. "I feel nothing, but perhaps I'm more used to +being stared at." She turned her head slightly. "Oh!" + +Dorle reached for his hand weapon. "What is it? What do you see?" Tance +had stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth half open. + +"The gun," Nasha said. "It's the gun." + +"Look at the size of it. The size of the thing." Dorle unfastened his +hand weapon slowly. "That's it, all right." + +The gun was huge. Stark and immense it pointed up at the sky, a mass of +steel and glass, set in a huge slab of concrete. Even as they watched +the gun moved on its swivel base, whirring underneath. A slim vane +turned with the wind, a network of rods atop a high pole. + +"It's alive," Nasha whispered. "It's listening to us, watching us." + +The gun moved again, this time clockwise. It was mounted so that it +could make a full circle. The barrel lowered a trifle, then resumed its +original position. + +"But who fires it?" Tance said. + +Dorle laughed. "No one. No one fires it." + +They stared at him. "What do you mean?" + +"It fires itself." + +They couldn't believe him. Nasha came close to him, frowning, looking up +at him. "I don't understand. What do you mean, it fires itself?" + +"Watch, I'll show you. Don't move." Dorle picked up a rock from the +ground. He hesitated a moment and then tossed the rock high in the air. +The rock passed in front of the gun. Instantly the great barrel moved, +the vanes contracted. + + * * * * * + +The rock fell to the ground. The gun paused, then resumed its calm +swivel, its slow circling. + +"You see," Dorle said, "it noticed the rock, as soon as I threw it up in +the air. It's alert to anything that flies or moves above the ground +level. Probably it detected us as soon as we entered the gravitational +field of the planet. It probably had a bead on us from the start. We +don't have a chance. It knows all about the ship. It's just waiting for +us to take off again." + +"I understand about the rock," Nasha said, nodding. "The gun noticed it, +but not us, since we're on the ground, not above. It's only designed to +combat objects in the sky. The ship is safe until it takes off again, +then the end will come." + +"But what's this gun for?" Tance put in. "There's no one alive here. +Everyone is dead." + +"It's a machine," Dorle said. "A machine that was made to do a job. And +it's doing the job. How it survived the blast I don't know. On it goes, +waiting for the enemy. Probably they came by air in some sort of +projectiles." + +"The enemy," Nasha said. "Their own race. It is hard to believe that +they really bombed themselves, fired at themselves." + +"Well, it's over with. Except right here, where we're standing. This one +gun, still alert, ready to kill. It'll go on until it wears out." + +"And by that time we'll be dead," Nasha said bitterly. + +"There must have been hundreds of guns like this," Dorle murmured. "They +must have been used to the sight, guns, weapons, uniforms. Probably they +accepted it as a natural thing, part of their lives, like eating and +sleeping. An institution, like the church and the state. Men trained to +fight, to lead armies, a regular profession. Honored, respected." + +Tance was walking slowly toward the gun, peering nearsightedly up at it. +"Quite complex, isn't it? All those vanes and tubes. I suppose this is +some sort of a telescopic sight." His gloved hand touched the end of a +long tube. + +Instantly the gun shifted, the barrel retracting. It swung-- + +"Don't move!" Dorle cried. The barrel swung past them as they stood, +rigid and still. For one terrible moment it hesitated over their heads, +clicking and whirring, settling into position. Then the sounds died out +and the gun became silent. + +Tance smiled foolishly inside his helmet. "I must have put my finger +over the lens. I'll be more careful." He made his way up onto the +circular slab, stepping gingerly behind the body of the gun. He +disappeared from view. + +"Where did he go?" Nasha said irritably. "He'll get us all killed." + +"Tance, come back!" Dorle shouted. "What's the matter with you?" + +"In a minute." There was a long silence. At last the archeologist +appeared. "I think I've found something. Come up and I'll show you." + +"What is it?" + +"Dorle, you said the gun was here to keep the enemy off. I think I know +why they wanted to keep the enemy off." + +They were puzzled. + +"I think I've found what the gun is supposed to guard. Come and give me +a hand." + +"All right," Dorle said abruptly. "Let's go." He seized Nasha's hand. +"Come on. Let's see what he's found. I thought something like this might +happen when I saw that the gun was--" + +"Like what?" Nasha pulled her hand away. "What are you talking about? +You act as if you knew what he's found." + +"I do." Dorle smiled down at her. "Do you remember the legend that all +races have, the myth of the buried treasure, and the dragon, the serpent +that watches it, guards it, keeping everyone away?" + +She nodded. "Well?" + +Dorle pointed up at the gun. + +"That," he said, "is the dragon. Come on." + + * * * * * + +Between the three of them they managed to pull up the steel cover and +lay it to one side. Dorle was wet with perspiration when they finished. + +"It isn't worth it," he grunted. He stared into the dark yawning hole. +"Or is it?" + +Nasha clicked on her hand lamp, shining the beam down the stairs. The +steps were thick with dust and rubble. At the bottom was a steel door. + +"Come on," Tance said excitedly. He started down the stairs. They +watched him reach the door and pull hopefully on it without success. +"Give a hand!" + +"All right." They came gingerly after him. Dorle examined the door. It +was bolted shut, locked. There was an inscription on the door but he +could not read it. + +"Now what?" Nasha said. + +Dorle took out his hand weapon. "Stand back. I can't think of any other +way." He pressed the switch. The bottom of the door glowed red. +Presently it began to crumble. Dorle clicked the weapon off. "I think we +can get through. Let's try." + +The door came apart easily. In a few minutes they had carried it away in +pieces and stacked the pieces on the first step. Then they went on, +flashing the light ahead of them. + +They were in a vault. Dust lay everywhere, on everything, inches thick. +Wood crates lined the walls, huge boxes and crates, packages and +containers. Tance looked around curiously, his eyes bright. + +"What exactly are all these?" he murmured. "Something valuable, I would +think." He picked up a round drum and opened it. A spool fell to the +floor, unwinding a black ribbon. He examined it, holding it up to the +light. + +"Look at this!" + +They came around him. "Pictures," Nasha said. "Tiny pictures." + +"Records of some kind." Tance closed the spool up in the drum again. +"Look, hundreds of drums." He flashed the light around. "And those +crates. Let's open one." + +Dorle was already prying at the wood. The wood had turned brittle and +dry. He managed to pull a section away. + +It was a picture. A boy in a blue garment, smiling pleasantly, staring +ahead, young and handsome. He seemed almost alive, ready to move toward +them in the light of the hand lamp. It was one of them, one of the +ruined race, the race that had perished. + +For a long time they stared at the picture. At last Dorle replaced the +board. + +"All these other crates," Nasha said. "More pictures. And these drums. +What are in the boxes?" + +"This is their treasure," Tance said, almost to himself. "Here are their +pictures, their records. Probably all their literature is here, their +stories, their myths, their ideas about the universe." + +"And their history," Nasha said. "We'll be able to trace their +development and find out what it was that made them become what they +were." + +Dorle was wandering around the vault. "Odd," he murmured. "Even at the +end, even after they had begun to fight they still knew, someplace down +inside them, that their real treasure was this, their books and +pictures, their myths. Even after their big cities and buildings and +industries were destroyed they probably hoped to come back and find +this. After everything else was gone." + +"When we get back home we can agitate for a mission to come here," Tance +said. "All this can be loaded up and taken back. We'll be leaving +about--" + +He stopped. + +"Yes," Dorle said dryly. "We'll be leaving about three day-periods from +now. We'll fix the ship, then take off. Soon we'll be home, that is, if +nothing happens. Like being shot down by that--" + +"Oh, stop it!" Nasha said impatiently. "Leave him alone. He's right: all +this must be taken back home, sooner or later. We'll have to solve the +problem of the gun. We have no choice." + +Dorle nodded. "What's your solution, then? As soon as we leave the +ground we'll be shot down." His face twisted bitterly. "They've guarded +their treasure too well. Instead of being preserved it will lie here +until it rots. It serves them right." + +"How?" + +"Don't you see? This was the only way they knew, building a gun and +setting it up to shoot anything that came along. They were so certain +that everything was hostile, the enemy, coming to take their possessions +away from them. Well, they can keep them." + +Nasha was deep in thought, her mind far away. Suddenly she gasped. +"Dorle," she said. "What's the matter with us? We have no problem. The +gun is no menace at all." + +The two men stared at her. + +"No menace?" Dorle said. "It's already shot us down once. And as soon as +we take off again--" + +"Don't you see?" Nasha began to laugh. "The poor foolish gun, it's +completely harmless. Even I could deal with it alone." + +"You?" + +Her eyes were flashing. "With a crowbar. With a hammer or a stick of +wood. Let's go back to the ship and load up. Of course we're at its +mercy in the air: that's the way it was made. It can fire into the sky, +shoot down anything that flies. But that's all! Against something on the +ground it has no defenses. Isn't that right?" + +Dorle nodded slowly. "The soft underbelly of the dragon. In the legend, +the dragon's armor doesn't cover its stomach." He began to laugh. +"That's right. That's perfectly right." + +"Let's go, then," Nasha said. "Let's get back to the ship. We have work +to do here." + + * * * * * + +It was early the next morning when they reached the ship. During the +night the Captain had died, and the crew had ignited his body, according +to custom. They had stood solemnly around it until the last ember died. +As they were going back to their work the woman and the two men +appeared, dirty and tired, still excited. + +And presently, from the ship, a line of people came, each carrying +something in his hands. The line marched across the gray slag, the +eternal expanse of fused metal. When they reached the weapon they all +fell on the gun at once, with crowbars, hammers, anything that was heavy +and hard. + +The telescopic sights shattered into bits. The wiring was pulled out, +torn to shreds. The delicate gears were smashed, dented. + +Finally the warheads themselves were carried off and the firing pins +removed. + +The gun was smashed, the great weapon destroyed. The people went down +into the vault and examined the treasure. With its metal-armored +guardian dead there was no danger any longer. They studied the pictures, +the films, the crates of books, the jeweled crowns, the cups, the +statues. + +At last, as the sun was dipping into the gray mists that drifted across +the planet they came back up the stairs again. For a moment they stood +around the wrecked gun looking at the unmoving outline of it. + +Then they started back to the ship. There was still much work to be +done. The ship had been badly hurt, much had been damaged and lost. The +important thing was to repair it as quickly as possible, to get it into +the air. + +With all of them working together it took just five more days to make it +spaceworthy. + + * * * * * + +Nasha stood in the control room, watching the planet fall away behind +them. She folded her arms, sitting down on the edge of the table. + +"What are you thinking?" Dorle said. + +"I? Nothing." + +"Are you sure?" + +"I was thinking that there must have been a time when this planet was +quite different, when there was life on it." + +"I suppose there was. It's unfortunate that no ships from our system +came this far, but then we had no reason to suspect intelligent life +until we saw the fission glow in the sky." + +"And then it was too late." + +"Not quite too late. After all, their possessions, their music, books, +their pictures, all of that will survive. We'll take them home and study +them, and they'll change us. We won't be the same afterwards. Their +sculpturing, especially. Did you see the one of the great winged +creature, without a head or arms? Broken off, I suppose. But those +wings-- It looked very old. It will change us a great deal." + +"When we come back we won't find the gun waiting for us," Nasha said. +"Next time it won't be there to shoot us down. We can land and take the +treasure, as you call it." She smiled up at Dorle. "You'll lead us back +there, as a good captain should." + +"Captain?" Dorle grinned. "Then you've decided." + +Nasha shrugged. "Fomar argues with me too much. I think, all in all, I +really prefer you." + +"Then let's go," Dorle said. "Let's go back home." + +The ship roared up, flying over the ruins of the city. It turned in a +huge arc and then shot off beyond the horizon, heading into outer space. + + * * * * * + +Down below, in the center of the ruined city, a single half-broken +detector vane moved slightly, catching the roar of the ship. The base of +the great gun throbbed painfully, straining to turn. After a moment a +red warning light flashed on down inside its destroyed works. + +And a long way off, a hundred miles from the city, another warning light +flashed on, far underground. Automatic relays flew into action. Gears +turned, belts whined. On the ground above a section of metal slag +slipped back. A ramp appeared. + +A moment later a small cart rushed to the surface. + +The cart turned toward the city. A second cart appeared behind it. It +was loaded with wiring cables. Behind it a third cart came, loaded with +telescopic tube sights. And behind came more carts, some with relays, +some with firing controls, some with tools and parts, screws and bolts, +pins and nuts. The final one contained atomic warheads. + +The carts lined up behind the first one, the lead cart. The lead cart +started off, across the frozen ground, bumping calmly along, followed by +the others. Moving toward the city. + +To the damaged gun. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Planet Stories_ September 1952. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gun, by Philip K. 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