The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stamped Caution, by Raymond Zinke Gallun

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Title: Stamped Caution

Author: Raymond Zinke Gallun

Translator: Kossin

Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32054]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction August 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

stamped CAUTION

By RAYMOND Z. GALLUN

Illustrated by KOSSIN

_It's a funny thing, but most monsters seem to be of the
opinion that it's men who are the monsters. You know, they
have a point._

* * * * *

Ten minutes after the crackup, somebody phoned for the Army. That
meant us. The black smoke of the fire, and the oily residues, which
were later analyzed, proved the presence of a probable petroleum
derivative. The oil was heavily tainted with radioactivity. Most
likely it was fuel from the odd, conchlike reaction-motors, the exact
principles of which died, as far as we were concerned, with the
crash.

[Illustration]

The craft was mainly of aluminum, magnesium and a kind of stainless
steel, proving that, confronted with problems similar to ones we had
encountered, aliens might solve them in similar ways. From the
crumpled-up wreckage which we dug out of that Missouri hillside, Klein
even noticed a familiar method of making girders and braces lighter.
Circular holes were punched out of them at spaced intervals.

I kept hunting conviction by telling myself that, for the first time
in all remembered history, we were peeking behind the veil of another
planet. This should be the beginning of a new era, one of immensely
widened horizons, and of high romance--but with a dark side, too. The
sky was no longer a limit. There were things beyond it that would have
to be