The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Gift For Terra, by Fox B. Holden

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Title: A Gift For Terra

Author: Fox B. Holden

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: May 23, 2010 [EBook #32487]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A GIFT FOR TERRA

BY FOX B. HOLDEN

Illustrated by Paul Orban

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science
Fiction September 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _The good Martian Samaritans rescued Johnny Love and offered
him "the stars". Now, maybe, Johnny didn't look closely enough into the
"gift horse's" mouth, but there were others who did ... and found
therein the answer to life...._]

His head hurt like blazes, but he was alive, and to be alive meant
fighting like hell to stay that way.

That was the first thing returning consciousness told him. The next was
that his helmet should have been cracked wide open when the bum landing
had wrenched the acceleration hammocks out of their suspension sockets
and heaved his suited body across the buckled conning deck. It should've
been, but it wasn't.

The third thing he knew was that Ferris' helmet had been smashed into a
million pieces, and that Ferris was dead.

Sand sifted in a cold, red river through the gaping rent in the side of
the ship, trying to bury him before he could stand up and get his
balance on the crazily tilted deck. He shook loose with more strength
than he needed, gave the rest of the muscles in his blocky body a try,
and there wasn't any hurt worse than a bruise. Funny. Ferris was dead.

He had a feeling somewhere at the edge of his brain that there was going
to be more to it than just checking his oxygen and food-concentrate
supply and walking away from the ship. A man didn't complete the first
Earth-Mars flight ever made, smash his ship to hell, and then just walk
away fr