Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930The Project Gutenberg eBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 Author: Various Editor: Harry Bates Release date: December 17, 2009 [eBook #30691] Most recently updated: January 5, 2021 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30691 Credits: Produced by Greg Weeks, Katherine Ward, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE, DECEMBER 1930 *** Produced by Greg Weeks, Katherine Ward, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE _On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month_ W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher HARRY BATES, Editor DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees _That_ the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the Authors' League of America; _That_ such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American workmen; _That_ each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit; _That_ an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages. _The other Clayton magazines are_: ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE NOVELS MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES, and WESTERN LOVE STORIES. _More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Magazines._ VOL. IV, No. 3 CONTENTS DECEMBER, 1930 COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSOLOWSKI _Painted in Oils from a Scene in "The Ape-Men of Xlotli."_ SLAVES OF THE DUST SOPHIE WENZEL ELLIS 295 _Fate's Retribution Was Adequate. There Emerged a Rat with a Man's Head and Face._ THE PIRATE PLANET CHARLES W. DIFFIN 310 _It is War. Interplanetary War. And on Far-Distant Venus Two Fighting Earthlings Stand Up Against a Whole Planet Run Amuck._ (Part Two of a Four-Part Novel.) THE SEA TERROR CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK 336 _The Trail of Mystery Gold Leads Carnes and Dr. Bird to a Tremendous Monster of the Deep._ GRAY DENIM HARL VINCENT 354 _The Blood of the Van Dorn's Ran in Karl's Veins. He Rode the Skies Like an Avenging God._ THE APE-MEN OF XLOTLI DAVID R. SPARKS 370 _A Beautiful Face in the Depths of a Geyser--and Kirby Plunges into a Desperate Mid-Earth Conflict with the Dreadful Feathered Serpent._ (A Complete Novelette.) THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 421 _A Meeting place for Readers of Astounding Stories._ * * * * * Single Copies, 20 Cents (In Canada, 25 Cents) Yearly Subscription, $2.00 Issued monthly by Readers' Guild, Inc., 80 Lafayette St., New York, N.Y. W. M. Clayton, President; Francis P. Pace, Secretary. Entered as second-class matter December 7, 1929, at the Post Office at New York. N.Y., under Act of March 3. 1879. Title registered as a Trade Mark in the U.S. Patent Office. Member Newsstand Group--Men's List. For advertising rates address E. R. Crow & Co., Inc., 25 Vanderbilt Ave., New York; or 225 North Michigan Ave., Chicago. * * * * * Slaves of the Dust _By Sophie Wenzel Ellis_ Fate's retribution was adequate. There emerged a rat with a man's head and face. _It's a poor science that would hide from us the great, deep, sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as mere superficial film._ --_Carlyle_. [Illustration: _Sir Basil showed his teeth in his ugly smile. "A creator is never merciful."_] The two _bataloes_ turned from the open waters of the lower Tapajos River into the _igarape_, the lily-smothered shallows that often mark an Indian settlement in the jungles of Brazil. One of the two half-breed rubber-gatherers suddenly stopped his _bataloe_ by thrusting a paddle against a giant clump of lilies. In a corruption of the Tupi dialect, he called over to the white man occupying the other frail craft. "We dare go no farther, master. The country of the Ungapuks is bewitched. It is too dangerous." Fearfully he stared over his shoulder toward a spot in the slimy water where a dim bulk moved, which was only an alligator hunting for his breakfast. Hale Oakham, as long and lanky and level-eyed as Charles Lindbergh, ran despairing fingers through his damp hair and groaned. "But how can I find this jungle village without a guide?" The _caboclo_ shrugged. "The village will find you. It is bewitched, master. But you will soon see the path through the _matto_." "Can't you stay by me until time to land? I don't like the looks of these alligators." "It is better for a white man to face an alligator than for a _caboclo_ to face an Ungapuk. Once they used to kill and eat us for our strength. Now--" Again his shrug was eloquent. "Now?" Hale prompted impatiently. "The white god who put a spell on these one-time cannibals will bewitch us and make us wash and rejoice when it is time to die." * * * * * He shuddered and spat at a cayman that was lumbering away from his _bataloe._ Hale Oakham laughed, a hearty boyish laugh for a rather learned young professor. "Is that all they do to you?" he asked. "No. All who enter this magic _matto_ die soon, rejoicing. Before the last breath comes, it is said their bodies turn into a handful of silver dust--poof!--like that." He snapped his dirty fingers. "Then the life that leaves them goes into rocks that walk." Hale sighed resignedly. There wasn't any use to argue. "Unload your _bataloe_," he ordered testily, "and get your filthy carcasses away." The half-breeds obeyed readily. As the departing _bataloe_ turned from the _igarape_ into the open water of the river, the young man repressed a sudden lifting of his scalp. He was in for it now! His long body sprawled out in the _bataloe_, he paddled about aimlessly for several minutes until he found an aisle through the jungle--the path that led to the jungle village which he was visiting in the name of science, and for a certain award. Before plunging into that waiting tangle where life and death carried on a visible, unceasing struggle, he hesitated. Instinctively he shrank from losing himself in that mad green world. * * * * * He had first heard of the Ungapuks at the convention of the Nescience Club in New York, that body of scientists, near-scientists and adventurers linked together for the purpose of awarding the yearly Woolman prizes for the most spectacular addition of empiric facts to various branches of sci |