Professor Calculus's sensational invention starts out by causing all sorts of disasters at Marlinspike Hall: every window shatters, along with most of the glass objects in the house! Sadly, this discovery won't be joining the shelves of the local joke shop. Spies set out to seize Calculus and force his plans out of him. It turns out the kidnappers are Bordurians, the eternal enemies of the Syldavians, fully intent on turning Calculus's invention into a weapon of mass destruction.
Hardcover