The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead Man's Planet, by William Morrison

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Title: Dead Man's Planet

Author: William Morrison

Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller

Release Date: December 27, 2009 [EBook #30773]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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DEAD
MAN'S
PLANET

By WILLIAM MORRISON

Illustrated by EMSH

_When a driven man arrives at a cemetery world, what else can it be
but journey's end--and the start of a new one?_

Outside the ship, it was the sun that blazed angrily. Inside, it was Sam
Wilson's temper. "Study your lessons," he snarled, with a savageness
that surprised himself, "or I'll never let you set foot on this planet
at all."

"Okay, Pop," said Mark, a little white around the nostrils. He looked
old for so young a kid. "I didn't mean anything wrong."

"I don't care what you meant. You do as you're told."

In the quiet that followed, broken only by the hum of the
arithmetic-tape, Sam wondered at himself. As kids went, Mark had never
been a nuisance. Certainly Rhoda had never had any trouble with him. But
Rhoda had been altogether different. Sam was tough and he had always got
a sense of satisfaction out of knowing that he was hard-boiled. Or at
least that was once true. Rhoda had been sweet, gentle....

He aroused himself from thoughts of her by calling, "Mark!"

"Yes, Pop?"

His voice had been harsher than he had intended. Over the past few weeks
he seemed gradually to have been losing control of it. Now, although he
was going to do his son a favor, he sounded like a slavemaster
threatening a beating. "You can shut off your arithmetic lesson. We're
going out."

"But didn't you want me--"

"I changed my mind."

Mark seemed more troubled than pleased, as if a father who changed his
mind so readily was a man to be wary of.

_I'm on edge all the time_, thought Sam, _and I'm getting him that way,
too. I'll have to regain control of myself._

* * * * *

He had long ago made all the neces