This image is the cover for the book Watch the Sky, Classics To Go

Watch the Sky, Classics To Go

The Geest gun — the Gunderland Battle trophy on the wall — attracts plotters and generates a plot. Like Rudyard Kipling's bejeweled elephant-goad in "The King's Ankus", the Geest gun stirs ambition in people. More than in the Kipling though, these seem competent, thoughtfully dangerous men.(Goodreads)

James H. Schmitz

James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) was an American science fiction writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents. Schmitz wrote mostly short stories, which sold chiefly to Galaxy Science Fiction and Astounding Science-Fiction (which later became Analog Science Fiction and Fact). Gale Biography in Context called him "a craftsman-like writer who was a steady contributor to science fiction magazines for over 20 years." (Wikipedia)