The Project Gutenberg EBook of Delayed Action, by Charles Vincent De Vet

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Title: Delayed Action

Author: Charles Vincent De Vet

Illustrator: Dick Francis

Release Date: September 21, 2010 [EBook #33790]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DELAYED ACTION ***

Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Robert Cicconetti, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note:

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

_This planet gave him the perfect chance to commit
the perfect crime--only he couldn't remember just
what it was he had committed._

[Illustration]

DELAYED ACTION

By CHARLES V. DeVET

Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS

* * * * *

It was just a hunch. Johnson knew that, but his hunches had often paid
off in the past, and now he waited with a big man's patience. For five
hours he sat in the wooden stands, under the rumpled canvas the
concessionaires had put up to protect the tourists from Marlock's
yellow sun.

The sun was hot and soon Johnson's clothing was marked with large
soiled patches of sweat. Now and then a light breeze blew across the
stands from the native section and at each breath his nostrils
crinkled in protest at the acrid smell.

Marlock wasn't much of a planet. Its one claim to fame was its
widely advertised Nature's Moebius Strip. For eighteen months of the
year--nine months of sub-zero cold, and nine months of sultry,
sand-driven summer--the only outsiders to visit the planet came to buy
its one export, the fur of the desert ox. But during the two months of
fall and two months of spring the tourists poured in to gape at the
Strip.

Idly, for the hundredth time, Johnson let his gaze run over the
tourists lining up for their "thrill" journey out onto the Strip. Most
of them wouldn't go