POGO PLANET
By MARTIN PEARSON
(Author of "Cosmos Eye", "The Unfinished City", etc.)
Introducing that modest little superman, that shrinking
violet of destiny, Ajax Calkins, and a world where you
had to hop, in some way, to get where you wanted to go!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Future combined with Science Fiction October 1941.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
As my ship hit the darkness that was the outer atmosphere of Midplanet, I thrilled to the thought that I, Ajax Calkins, had at last achieved my rightful place among the pioneers of space. Even when my ship bounced on the green soil, flew end over end upwards to come down ka-plunk in the wrong side of a gooey thick swamp, I exulted that I was the first in possession of a major planet that had been overlooked by the rest of the interplanetary crowd.
As I picked myself up from the midst of a pile of miscellaneous equipment, hiking ropes, elephant guns, para-rays, spare shoes and cans of Unifood, and rubbed my bruised arms and head, I thought of how many millions would give their all to be in my place.