“Last night there was a good deal of excitement in official circles, about the odd rocket that went up from somewhere in Asia. You remember that the common concensus of opinion was that the Russians were experimenting in Siberia with their version of the V-Two. The rocket itself was observed from Calcutta, Delhi, and the costal cities of China. This goes to show you how millions of people can be wrong.
“Half an hour ago, your correspondent was talking by transoceanic telephone with Doctor Wallace Wington, a member of the Mitchell Expedition to Mount Shenadun in the Himalayas. Both Gowan Mitchell and Joseph Carmon were lost in the last assault on the summit. The other members of the expedition are hunting for their bodies. Dr. Wington flew out to Calcutta with an eyewitness report of the so-called rocket.
“Dr. Wington told me that there was an enormous rumble from the depths of Shenadun and the earth shook. A spear of flame shot miles into the air. At the end of it some sort of a blazing ball was shot up toward the stratosphere.
“In the morning Dr. Wington examined the summit with powerful glasses and he has seen a newly created crater up there. Thus the official apprehension concerning a superpowered rocket is false. Dr. Wington explained that Shenadun, probably a long-silent volcano, built up enough pressure to erupt. The matter thrown toward the sky doubtless fell in some remote portion of the Himalayas.
“So friends, you can call it sort of a volcanic burp, hardly worth all the thousands of words that have so far been devoted to it.
“Today in the House of Representatives, a bill was introduced which makes it possible for...”