This is a story of political intrigue and breathless adventure under the shadow of impending war. It is a vivid forecast of world conditions as they may be fifty years from now, but the atmosphere is realistic rather than futuristic: one of robust adventure, with a love-interest subordinated to the swift movement of perilous hours. The war which, for a few days, threatens the basis of civilisation, has no further fatalities than the death of a police officer, and the impending liquidation of a politician who can be easily spared; but the action is tense and swift, and the crisis is as exciting in its incidence, and as unforeseeable in its conclusion, as the author's many readers have learned to expect.