The Black Avengers

# The Black Avengers by Vargo Statten

This science fiction novel, published by Scion Limited in 1953, concerns Dayton Ralsor, a frail Earthman and Governing Director of the Pioneer Space Corporation, framed for embezzlement in an Interplanetary Court session of the year 2017. Three industrial magnates—diamond king Harving Lerab, precision instrument maker Emris Cafton, and uranium-interested arms dealer Valcent Drolag—conspire to engineer his conviction, intending to seize control of the valuable space line. Judge Montrose sentences the dying Ralsor to the Jupiter penitentiary, where he labors in an underground metal dome maintaining walls against the planet's poisonous, acid-laced atmosphere. Confined beneath crushing gravity and toxic air, Ralsor unexpectedly begins regaining strength through relentless physical exertion, his weakened frame gradually hardening into health.