The Big Time by Fritz Leiber

In a famous quip, dramatist Anton Chekhov claimed that if a gun appears on the stage in Act One, it will be fired before the conclusion of the play. But what if an atomic bomb shows up in the drawing room at the beginning of the drama? Does it blow up or get defused?

This is one of the many quandaries Fritz Leiber dumps on his readers in his richly inven…