Austin Hall (c. 1885 - 1933) was an American short story writer and novelist. He began writing when, while working as a cowboy, he was asked to write a story. He wrote westerns, science fiction and fantasy for pulp magazines. The story opens on an oppressively hot day with a poor little newspaper boy, Charley, playing with a "e;burning glass"e; (a magnifying glass) which he uses to concentrate sunlight onto a small focal spot, thus intensifying the heat on some paper until it burns a hole, perhaps a portent of things to come. He is noticed by a recluse scientist, Dr. Robold, who takes interest in Charley's scientific curiosity and calls him a young Archimedes, referring to the ancient Greek who, as legend tells, used a "e;burning glass"e; from shore to set enemy ships ablaze as they were approaching. Charley has no parents to care for him. Dr. Robold takes Charley away from his pitiful life, to a mountain retreat in Colorado. Years later, bizarre, terrifying events begin to occur. At a street intersection in Oakland, California, everything within a large circular area streetcars, autos, people, pavement suddenly vanishes without a sound, during a flash of bright, multi-colored ligh
