"I could change, you see, and take things as all sorts of odd characters. If I was spotted and followed, I'd try to duck in an alley or a doorway and change again. The clothes are extra. Sometimes I could hide clothes in a lot. Most of the time, though, I'd have to change into something new. A bird, a cat. Then I'd carry what I had stolen in my beak or around my neck. Once I copped an umbrella and changed into a big dog and went off with it in my mouth."
The Leader is suffering from a fatal illness of pituitary gland. Technology is available for transplant of the gland from a human donor. But there is a glitch. Dr Lans, the only surgeon capable of performing the surgery, is in concentration camp...
By 2000 A.D, airships have replaced aircraft for freight and human travel. Kipling's novella follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling foul weather, while detailing a planet-wide Aerial Board of Control (A.B.C.), which enforces a rigid system of command and control not only in the skies but in world affairs too; they outlaw war in 1967.
