The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pirates of the Gorm, by Nat Schachner

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Title: Pirates of the Gorm

Author: Nat Schachner

Release Date: July 3, 2009 [EBook #29299]

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.

[Illustration: _He jumped--directly over the Gorm!_]

Pirates of the Gorm

By Nat Schachner

* * * * *

[Sidenote: The trail of vanished space ships leads Grant Pemberton to
a marvellous lake of fire.]

Grant Pemberton sat up suddenly in his berth, every sense straining
and alert. What was it that had awakened him in the deathly stillness
of the space-flier? His right hand slid under the pillow and clutched
the handle of his gun. Its firm coolness was a comforting reality.

There it was again. A tiny scratching on the door as though someone
was fumbling for the slide-switch. Very quietly he sat, waiting, his
finger poised against the trigger. Suddenly the scratching ceased, and
the panel moved slowly open. A thin oblong patch glimmered in the
light of the corridor beyond. Grant tensed grimly.

A hand moved slowly around the slit--a hand that held a pencil-ray.
Even in the dim illumination, Grant noted the queer spatulate fingers.
A Ganymedan! In the entire solar system only they had those strange
appendages.

Pemberton catapulted out of his berth like a flash. Not a moment too
soon, either. A pale blue beam slithered across the blackness,
impinged upon the pillow where his head had lain only a moment before.
The air-cushion disintegrated into smoldering dust. Grant's weapon
spat viciously. A hail of tiny bullets rattled against the panel, and
exploded, each in a puffball of flame.

But it was too late. Already the