{"product_id":"2940013769182","title":"An Express of the Future","description":"\"TAKE care!\" cried my conductor, \"there's a step!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSafely descending the step thus indicated to me, I entered a vast\u003cbr\u003eroom, illuminated by blinding electric reflectors, the sound of our\u003cbr\u003efeet alone breaking the solitude and silence of the place. Where was\u003cbr\u003eI? What had I come there to do? Who was my mysterious guide? Questions\u003cbr\u003eunanswered. A long walk in the night, iron doors opened and reclosed\u003cbr\u003ewith a clang, stairs descending, it seemed to me, deep into the\u003cbr\u003eearth--that is all I could remember. I had, however, no time for\u003cbr\u003ethinking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No doubt you are asking yourself who I am?\" said my guide: \"Colonel\u003cbr\u003ePierce, at your service. Where are you? In America, at Boston--in a\u003cbr\u003estation.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A station?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, the starting-point of the `Boston to Liverpool Pneumatic Tubes\u003cbr\u003eCompany.'\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, with an explanatory gesture, the Colonel pointed out to me two\u003cbr\u003elong iron cylinders, about a metre and a half in diameter, lying upon\u003cbr\u003ethe ground a few paces off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI looked at these two cylinders, ending on the right in a mass of\u003cbr\u003emasonry, and closed on the left with heavy metallic caps, from which a\u003cbr\u003ecluster of tubes were carried up to the roof; and suddenly I\u003cbr\u003ecomprehended the purpose of all this.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHad I not, a short time before, read, in an American newspaper, an\u003cbr\u003earticle describing this extraordinary project for linking Europe with\u003cbr\u003ethe New World by means of two gigantic submarines tubes? An inventor\u003cbr\u003ehad claimed to have accomplished the task; and that inventor, Colonel\u003cbr\u003ePierce, I had before me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn thought I realized the newspaper article.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070249124080,"sku":"2940013769182","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013769182_p0.jpg?v=1763590022","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013769182","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}