The Skylark of Valeron

Illustrated by Elliot Dold
PROLOGUE
Mother-r-r! A sturdy, auburn-haired urchin of twelve—Richard Ballinger Seaton the fourteen hundred and seventy-first—turned to the queenly young matron who was his mother as the viewing area before them went blank. You said that as soon as I was old enough you would let me see the rest of the 'Exploits of Seaton One.' Now grandfather's the chief of the Galactic Council, and I'm twelve, and I'm old enough.
Perhaps you are, son. Into the beautiful eyes of the young woman came that indefinable, indescribable something; the knowledge that her oldest was no longer a baby. Tell me the story as it is run for the holiday, and I shall see.
Richard Ballinger Seaton the First was a Ph. D. in chemistry, the boy began. He lived in the city of Washington, in what was then the United States of America. He was born—
Never mind dates and such things, sonny. It would take too long to give all the details. I just want to make sure that you really understand the story—conditions were so different then from what they are now.
Well, Seaton One discovered Rovolon, which he called 'X' metal at first. He found out that it would turn copper into energy, and he and Martin Reynolds Crane One built the very first space ship that was ever known. But the World Steel Corporation wanted all the Rovolon that Seaton had found; so Dr. DuQuesne, a chemist of theirs, and a kind of a spy named Perkins, tried to steal it away from him. They got a little of it, but it exploded some copper and killed a lot of people.
When Seaton heard about the explosion he found out that some of his Rovolon was gone, and they hired some detectives and had an awful time. A lot more people were killed, and a Japanese assistant of Crane's, named Shiro, was almost killed, too. Then they went to work and invented a lot of new instruments, such as a compass that pointed at any one thing forever; and attractors and repellers and rays and screens and explosives and lots of things that are good yet.