Short Story Books

House Operator

S. M. Tenneshaw

The first three deals were in the nature of warmups, and Rafferty emerged from them twenty or thirty credits to the good. He felt the cards moving the right way; luck was with him tonight. He wondered..

Master Race

Richard Ashby

The humming was stronger outside. Not louder, exactly, but more easy to feel. He crouched down, the way he'd seen commandos do in pictures, and began to run, holding the rifle at ready before him. And..

Captures

John Galsworthy

Having finished his cider, Bowden stood in the kitchen porch looking idly at a dance of gnats. The weather was fine, and the hay was in. It was one of those intervals between harvests which he was won..

We're Off to Mars!

Joe Gibson

Finally, Joe opened the package. He merely inserted his thumb into a conspicuous slot at the corner and pushed it around the top edges. The silver-gray material parted easily and the lid came off the ..

They Reached for the Moon

William Oberfield

The men who had gone in the other rockets had been scientists, greatly skilled men, men of high I.Q.'s. So the brass and the brains had gotten together and reasoned, and pooled data, and considered st..

The Ambassador's Pet

Alexander Blade

My mouth clammed shut. And then I understood. I couldn't keep the flush of embarrassment from my face and he saw it over the screen. It seemed to please him. Pretty damned clever, I thought. Smart psy..

I'll See You In My Dreams

William Campbell Gault

Ted drove down the curving, back rocky road to Sweeney's. It was a low-roofed building of cedar shakes, with an open air dining room on piles above the water of the cove. Ted stayed in the bar. He had..

Flight Into the Unknown

Tom W. Harris

Krotzer was beginning again: "This is Captain Krotzer of the ..." when there was a blinding white flash and the ship rang like a great bell slammed with a sledge-hammer. A spurt of white-hot blasted i..