The Secret of the Earth

Two twin brothers arrive in London impoverished, one an inventor working on an air ship and the other a writer, and their fortunes shift after a salt-stained manuscript recovered from the sea is handed to them. The decipherable fragments, presented as the Attlebridge papers, blend personal recollection, maritime incident, technical ambition, and speculative inquiry, moving between past events and present revelations. Damaged by salt water, the manuscript yields only portions of a startling account concerning the planet's condition and history, and the narrator offers the readable excerpts as a collected record that combines adventure, scientific imagination, and documentary reportage.