The Fire People — Argosy All-Story Weekly

This October 21, 1922 issue of Argosy-Allstory Weekly contains five serials, short fiction, and poetry. The lead serial, "The Fire People" by Ray Cummings, opens with a science-fiction premise: in November 1940, a meteor lands near Brookline, Massachusetts, creating a mysterious green-and-red phosphorescent light emerging from a buried gray sphere. The phenomenon resists water and is incinerated to extinction by extreme cold. Professor Newland subsequently theorizes that the meteors originated from Mercury, evidence of intelligent extraplanetary life. Other featured serials include W.A. Fraser's "Caste" (Part Two), Rufus F. King's "Dirty Weather" (Part Three), John Schoolcraft's "The Bird of Passage" (Part Four), and Hulbert Footner's "A New Girl in Town" (Part Five). Supporting fiction includes H. Bedford-Jones' adventure novella "Down the Coast of Barbary," Richard Howells Watkins' "Royce Assists," and shorter pieces by M.M. Solomon, Earl C. McCain, and others. Fred Jackson's thriller "The Dance of Death" is announced for the following week's issue.