perfect. C. D. Willard is a superb
storyteller.

_Wrong Numbers Still!_

Dear Editor:

I agree with the rest of your readers in the good things
they say about your magazine in "The Readers' Corner." There
is one story, however, "The Planet of Dread," in your August
issue, that gives me a rather sickening feeling of disgust.
The trouble was in the climax. After the hero has wandered
over quite a portion of the planet Inra, he arrives at some
mountains where, lo and behold! an unexpected space ship
drops from the clouds to an unfrequented ledge of rock and
makes a rescue. After this sensational climax comes an
equally thrilling anti-climax--the hero is offered three
years' salary for his story. To accuse the future world of
doing such a thing is an open insult to our posterity. Ten
per cent of my high school freshmen took just such an ending
to their first themes.

As that story took up about one-seventh of your space and
your magazine cost twenty cents. I figure you owe your
readers three cents on that issue. But, due to the fineness
of the rest of your stories, I am willing to forget your
debt as far as I am concerned.

I am happy to see that you are beginning to print articles.
I read with interest the one about Mechanical Voices for
Telephone Numbers in your September issue. But can't
something be done about wrong numbers? The article states
that a person dialed the number 8561T. Two seconds later the
loud-speaker spoke up, clearly, in an almost human voice,
8651T. Wrong number! Must this evil be with us always!

I am NOT in favor of reprints. You are printing stories
every month just as good as any of those suggested to you. I
have read most of those classic scientific stories referred
to. The best stories along this line have not been written
yet. Keep your space clear for them. Let us have young blood
with new ideas. Let our authors eat. Good stories were never
written on an empty stomach.

I believe yours is the highest type of the few magazines
that lay a greater stress on the brains of the hero than on
his good looks. But, for the sake of one of your ardent
readers, let that hero use his brains to get himself out of
whatever he has gotten into. Don't let a space ship swoop
down from above to resc