The Project Gutenberg EBook of Valley of Dreams, by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum

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Title: Valley of Dreams

Author: Stanley Grauman Weinbaum

Release Date: August 11, 2007 [EBook #22301]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VALLEY OF DREAMS ***

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| Transcriber's Note: |
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| This etext of Valley of Dreams by Stanley G. Weinbaum was |
| produced from "A Martian Odyssey and Others" published in |
| 1949. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that |
| the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. |
| |
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VALLEY OF DREAMS

Captain Harrison of the _Ares_ expedition turned away from the little
telescope in the bow of the rocket. "Two weeks more, at the most," he
remarked. "Mars only retrogrades for seventy days in all, relative to
the earth, and we've got to be homeward bound during that period, or
wait a year and a half for old Mother Earth to go around the sun and
catch up with us again. How'd you like to spend a winter here?"

Dick Jarvis, chemist of the party, shivered as he looked up from his
notebook. "I'd just as soon spend it in a liquid air tank!" he averred.
"These eighty-below zero summer nights are plenty for me."

"Well," mused the captain, "the first successful Martian expedition
ought to be home long before then."

"Successful if we get home," corrected Jarvis. "I don't trust these
cranky rockets--not since the auxiliary dumped me in the middle of Thyle
last week. Walking back from a rocket ride is a new sensation to me."

"Which reminds me," returned Harrison, "that we've got to recover your
films. They're important if we're to pull this trip