The Menace From Earth ssc (28 page)

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The body lay wedged against the right rear wheel, as if carried down there by undertow.

He walked back toward the kids. "Stay away from the car," he ordered. "Wait here. I've got something to do." He went back to the car and found the keys still in the ignition lock. He opened the trunk with some difficulty and got out a short spade he kept for desert mishaps.

It was not much of a grave, just a shallow trench in the wet sand, deep enough to receive and cover a man, but he promised himself that he would come back and do better. He had no time now. The waters, he thought, would be back with high tide. He must get himself and the children to the hills.

Once the body was out of sight, he called out to the boy and the girl, "You can come here now." He had one more chore. There was drift about, yucca stalks, bits of wood. He selected two pieces of unequal length, then dug around in his tool chest for bits of wire. He wired the short piece across the longer, in a rough cross, then planted the cross in the sand near the head of the grave.

He stepped back and looked at it, the kids at his side.

His lips moved silently for a moment, then he said, "Come on, kids. We got to get out of here." He picked up the little girl, took the boy by the hand, and they walked away to the west, the sun shining on their backs.

The End

* * * * * *

the year of the jackpot

A statistician charts a curve of strange,

unusual happenings throughout the earth,

only to find that his facts and figures prove

the approach of the end of the world ...

by his bootstraps

A man steps thirty thousand years into

time and is trapped in the fourth dimension

with three strange, yet oddly familiar, people ...

goldfish bowl

One by one, people disappear from the earth

in great swirling balls of fire, and are held

captive in space by beings of vastily

superior intelligence ...

These and other harrowing tales make the tangibles of today melt like split atoms as the reader journeys with Robert A. Heinlein into the fascinating future, the world tomorrow.

the menace from earth

by Robert A. Heinlein

To Hermann B. Deutsch

Copyright 1959 by Robert A. Heinlein

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Menace from Earth
, Fantasy House, Inc. 1957;
Water is for Washing
, Popular Publications, Inc. 1947;
Project Nightmare
, Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. 1953;
Sky Lift
, Greenleaf Publishing Co. 1953;
By His Bootstraps
, Street & Smith Publications, Inc. 1941;
Goldfish Bowl
, Street & Smith Publications, Inc. 1942;
Columbus Was a Dope
, Better Publications, Inc. 1947;
The Year of the Jackpot
, Galaxy Publishing Corp. 1952.

* * * * *

Back Cover

MOON CITIES PLUNGE

UNDERGROUND

and the earth is a sinister planet dying in the sky. Extraterrestrial intelligence prowls the heavens and kidnpas man-creatures for its unearthly amusement.

This is the day past tomorrow. Time has ended, and man has begun his endless journey towards the menacing stars.

First Edition Cover