Brigands of the Moon (Sci-Fi Classic). Ray Cummings

      CHAPTER I.

       Table of Contents

      Our ship, the space-flyer, Planetara, whose home port was Greater New York, carried mail and passenger traffic to and from both Venus and Mars. Of astronomical necessity, our flights were irregular. The spring of 2070, with both planets close to the Earth, we were making two complete round trips. We had just arrived in Greater New York, one May evening, from Grebhar, Venus Free State. With only five hours in port here, we were departing the same night at the zero hour for Ferrok-Shahn, capital of the Martian Union.

      We were no sooner at the landing stage than I found a code flash summoning Dan Dean and me to Divisional Detective Headquarters. Dan "Snap" Dean was one of my closest friends. He was electron-radio operator of the Planetara. A small, wiry, red-headed chap, with a quick, ready laugh and the kind of wit that made everyone like him.

      The summons to Detective-Colonel Halsey's office surprised us. Dean eyed me.

      "You haven't been opening any treasure vaults, have you, Gregg?"

      "He wants you, also," I retorted.

      He laughed. "Well, he can roar at me like a traffic switch-man and my private life will remain my own."

      We could not think why we should be wanted. It was the darkness of mid-evening when we left the Planetara for Halsey's office. It was not a long trip. We went on the upper monorail, descending into the subterranean city at Park Circle 30.

      We had never been to Halsey's office before. Now we found it to be a gloomy, vaultlike place in one of the deepest corridors. The door lifted.

      "Gregg Haljan and Daniel Dean."

      The guard stood aside. "Come in."

      I own that my heart was unduly thumping as we entered. The door dropped behind us. It was a small blue-lit apartment—a steel-lined room like a vault.

      Colonel Halsey sat at his desk. And the big, heavy-set, florid Captain Carter—our commander on the Planetara—was here. That surprised us: we had not seen him leave the ship.

      Halsey smiled at us gravely. Captain Carter spoke with an ominous calmness: "Sit down, lads."

      We took the seats. There was an alarming solemnity about this. If I had been guilty of anything that I could think of, it would have been