FOR A MOMENT THE OLD lady sat there in silence; then she leaned back, closed her eyes, and I knew there was a story coming.
“My last book, Death In The Atom, hit the stands last January,” she began. “When it was finished I had planned to take a six months’ vacation, but those fool publishers of mine insisted I do a sequel. Well, I’d used Mars and Pluto and Ganymede as settings for novels, so for this one I decided on Venus. I went to Venus City, and I spent six weeks in-country. I got some swell background material, and I met Ezra Karn....”
“Who?” I interrupted.
“An old prospector who lives out in the deep marsh on the outskirts of Varsoom country. To make a long story short, I got him talking about his adventures, and he told me plenty.”
The old woman paused. “Did you ever hear of the
