Bell's jaws clenched. He took out his two automatics and looked at them carefully. And then, much too short a time from the departure for the flying field to have been reached, the car checked. It went over rough cobblestones, and Bell himself knew well that there had been no cobbled roadway between the flying field and his prison. And then the car went up a sort of ramp, a fairly steep incline which by the feel of the motor was taken in low, and on for a short distance more. Then the car stopped and the motor was cut off.
Keys rattled in the lock outside. The door opened. The blunt barrel of an automatic pistol peered in.
(To be concluded in the next issue.)
The Readers' Corner
A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories
About Reprints
From time to time the Editors of Astounding Stories receive letters, like the two that follow, in which Readers beg us to run reprints, and now we feel it is time to call attention to the very good reasons why we must refuse.
We admit, right off, that some splendid Science Fiction stories have been published in the past—but are those now being printed in any way inferior to them? Aren't even better ones being written to-day?—since a whole civilization now stirs with active interest in science?—since three or five times as many writers are now supplying us with stories to choose from?—since science and scientific theory have reached so immeasurably much farther into the Realm of the Unknown Possible?