Monsters of Mars

Three Martian-duped Earthmen swing open the gates of space that for so long had barred the greedy hordes of the Red Planet.


Excerpt

Allan Randall stared at the man before him. "And that's why you sent for me, Milton?" he finally asked.


There was a moment's silence, in which Randall's eyes moved as though uncomprehendingly from the face of Milton to those of the two men beside him. The four sat together at the end of a roughly furnished and electric-lit living-room, and in that momentary silence there came in to them from the outside night the distant pounding of the Atlantic upon the beach. It was Randall who first spoke again.


The other's face was unsmiling. "That's why I sent for you, Allan," he said quietly. "To go to Mars with us to-night!"


"To Mars!" he repeated. "Have you gone crazy, Milton—or is this some joke you've put up with Lanier and Nelson here?"


Milton shook his head gravely. "It is not a joke, Allan. Lanier and I are actually going to flash out over the gulf to the planet Mars to-night. Nelson must stay here, and since we wanted three to go I wired you as the most likely of my friends to make the venture."


"But good God!" Randall exploded, rising. 


"You, Milton, as a physicist ought to know better. Space-ships and projectiles and all that are but fictionists' dreams."


"We are not going in either space-ship or projectile," said Milton calmly. And then as he saw his friend's bewilderment he rose and led the way to a door at the room's end, the other three following him into the room beyond.