Invisible Death

Two novelettes about madmen who want to conquer the world. The Beetle Horde was the cover story for the initial issue of Astounding Stories in January 1930. The Invisible Death was the cover story for Astounding Stories in the October 1930 issue. Both stories were about the revenge that spurned egotistical men will wreak upon the world when they don’t get their ways. Both stories reveal weak men in positions of advantage as the aspiring autocrats of their fantasies.

The Beetle Horde (1930)
Only two young explorers stand in the way of the mad Bram’s horrible revenge— the releasing of his trillions of man-sized beetles upon an utterly defenseless world.
Chapter I – Dodd’s Discovery
Chapter II – Beetles and Humans
Chapter III – Ten Miles Underground
Chapter IV – Bram’s Story
Chapter V – Doomed!
Chapter VI – Escape!

Conclusion
Bullets, shrapnel, shell—nothing can stop the trillions of famished, man-sized beetles which, led by a madman, sweep down over the human race.
Chapter VII – Through the Inferno
Chapter VIII – Recaptured
Chapter IX – The Trail of Death
Chapter X – At Bay
Chapter XI – The World Set Free

The Invisible Death (1930)
With night-rays and darkness-antidote America strikes back at the terrific and destructive Invisible Empire.
Chapter I – Out of the Hangman’s Hands
Chapter II – Conference
Chapter III – In the White House
Chapter IV – The Invisible Ambassador
Chapter V – The Enemy Strikes
Chapter VI – The Gas
Chapter VII – On the Trail
Chapter VIII – The Magnetic Trap
Chapter IX – The Invisible Emperor
Chapter X – The Tricks of the Trade
Chapter XI – In the Laboratory
Chapter XII – Von Kettler’s End
Chapter XIII – You Can’t Down the Marines

Victor Rousseau Emanuel (1879-1960), was originally born as Avigdor Rousseau Emanuel in England. He died in 1960 in Tarryton, New York. He wrote predominantly under the pen names Victor Rousseau, H. M. Egbert, and V. R. Emanuel, but, in the 1930s, he abandoned these pseudonyms to establish Victor Rousseau as a recognizable name in pulp fiction magazines. He wrote “spicy” stories under the pen name Lew Merrill.

Invisible Death has 3 illustrations.