The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Martian Cabal, by Roman Frederick Starzl

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Title: The Martian Cabal

Author: Roman Frederick Starzl

Release Date: July 18, 2009 [EBook #29437]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Astounding Stories May 1932.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

The Table of Contents is not part of the original magazine.
The pages have been renumbered.

The Martian Cabal

A Complete Novelette

By R. F. Starzl

* * * * *

Contents

Page
I Strange Intruder 2
II Scar Balta 10
III The Price of Monarchy 18
IV Torture 23
V The Wrath of Tolto 30
VI The Fight in the Fort 37
VII The Flight of a Princess 49
VIII In the Desert 57
IX Plot and Counter-Plot 71
X One Thousand to One 79
XI Giant Against Giant 86
XII "He Must Be a Man of Earth" 96

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Sime Hemingway, of the I. F. P., strikes at the insidious
interests that are lashing high the war feeling between Earth and
Mars.]

CHAPTER I

_Strange Intruder_

Sime Hemingway did not sleep well his first night on Mars. There was
no tangible reason why he shouldn't. His bed was soft. He had dined
sumptuously, for this hotel's cuisine offered not only Martian
delicacies, but drew on Earth and Venus as well.

Yet Sime did not sleep well. He tossed restlessly in the caressing
softness of his bed. He turned a knob in the head panel of his bed,
tried to yield to the soothing music that