The Project Gutenberg EBook of Monsoons of Death, by Gerald Vance

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Title: Monsoons of Death

Author: Gerald Vance

Release Date: May 31, 2010 [EBook #32618]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MONSOONS OF DEATH

By GERALD VANCE

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December
1942. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Illustration: Dreadful weaving shapes slithered through the storm
toward him]

[Sidenote: Ward Harrison got himself into a barrel of trouble when he
accepted a job at the Martian Observation Station. There were fearful
"things" on Mars....]

The gleaming insignia stripes on Lieutenant Ward Harrison's broad
shoulders were less than two days old when he received his first
assignment.

"Lieutenant Harrison," his commanding officer said, glancing from the
papers he held in his hands to the young man who stood at attention
before his desk, "this will be your first touch of action since you were
commissioned. A lot depends on how you handle yourself."

"Yes sir," Ward answered. He straightened his already poker-straight
spine. His face was young and serious and intent. There was a blaze of
zeal in his blue eyes and grimness in the tightness of his jaw. But a
lock of blonde hair that fell over his forehead lent an incongruously
boyish cast to his grimly set features.

His commander, a Planetary Colonel, with thirty years of void experience
behind him, smiled slightly and looked down at the papers in his hands
again.

"Your training record has been excellent, Harrison," he said, "and I am
gratified to note that you apparently realize the seriousness of our
work." He leaned back in his chair, looked up at the young Lieutenant.
"It took science hundreds of years to lick the problem of crossing the
void of space to the outer planets. Now, that that much has been
accomplished, the task of explo