Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 251: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

would die out on the blistering wastes of Mercury. Craig swung about, away from the tanks, and then stopped, thoughts spinning in his brain. There wasn’t any use of hunting Page. The damn fool probably was dead by now. Sheer suicide, that was what it was. Sheer lunacy. And he had warned him, too! And he, Craig, had work to do. Something had happened out there at the space warp. He had to lay those tantalizing Suspicions that rummaged through his mind. There were some things he had to be sure about. He didn’t have time to go hunting a man who was already dead, a damn fool who had committed suicide. The man was nuts to start with. Anyone who thought he could capture Candles— Savagely, Craig closed one of the line valves, screwed Shut the tank valve, disconnected the coupling and lifted the tank out of the rack. The tank was heavy. It had to be heavy to stand a pressure of two hundred atmospheres. As he started for the jumper, Mathilde, the cat, strolled down the ramp from the floor above and walked between his legs. Craig stumbled and almost fell, recovered his balance with a mighty effort and cursed Mathilde with a fluency born of practice. “Me-ow-ow-ow,” said Mathilde conversationally. There is something unreal about the Sunward side of Mercury, an abnormality that is sensed rather than seen. There the Sun Is nine times larger than seen from Earth, and the thermometer never registers under six hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit. Under that terrific heat, accompanied by blasting radiations hurled out by the Sun, men must wear photocell space suits, must ride in photocell cars and live in the power center, which in itself is little more than a mighty photocell. For electric power can be disposed of, while heat and radiation often cannot be. CORniclooo SS CO