Short Fiction · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for Short Fiction by Frank Belknap Long.
Chapter 1
The Hounds of Tindalos
A man experiences a terrifying encounter with otherworldly entities known as the Hounds of Tindalos, which pursue him through angles and dimensions, leading to a descent into madness and a desperate struggle for survival.
Chapter 2
I
Tom awakens in a Mars construction camp with a sense of death nearby. He recounts the harsh realities of life on Mars—privation, dust, and theft—and introduces the legendary figure Larsen, a scapegoat for the camp's misdeeds. Tom wakes Harry and reveals he heard a terrifying scream from the well, and they go to investigate together.
Chapter 3
II
The narrator and Harry discover the body of Ned, a beloved camp member, with his skull crushed. They find large footprints nearby and suspect murder, possibly motivated by jealousy over Molly Egan. They decide to consult Bill Seaton, a respected leader, to handle the situation discreetly and investigate the killer among them.
Chapter 4
III
Bill and Tom interrogate the camp after Ned's murder, focusing on Jim Kenny as a suspect due to his interest in Molly. However, Kenny's shoes don't match the footprints, shifting suspicion to Tom himself when his shoes appear to fit the prints. Tensions rise as the camp whispers and Molly's affections complicate the investigation.
Chapter 5
IV
The narrator is pursued by a lynch mob on Mars, but the attack is interrupted by the appearance of a brutal, monstrous figure who kills several men. The mob turns on the creature, which is shot and falls into a canal. The narrator reconciles with Molly, and they discuss the possibility that the Martians used telepathic powers to create a monster from human memories, specifically the murderer Larsen.
Chapter 6
V
Halpin Chalmers reflects on the possibility of a parallel dimension where life does not die, and describes his encounters with the Doels and visions of a strange entity beyond time and matter.
Chapter 7
The Red Fetish
Bill Cullen and Wellington Van Wyck, stranded on a desolate atoll, are driven to the brink of madness by thirst and starvation. Their mutual suspicion and murderous impulses culminate in a desperate swim to a nearby island, where they encounter cannibals and are attacked by sharks, resulting in Van Wyck's death.
Chapter 8
I: Out in Space
Richard and Joan Langford are en route to Ganymede in their atomotor-propelled space vessel. Richard expresses caution about the dangers of Jupiter's gaseous envelope, while Joan is eager for exploration. Their argument is interrupted by Dawson, who reports that nearly all instruments have gone dead due to Jupiter's gravity tug. Joan exults at the prospect of being forced to descend through Jupiter's mist to its solid crust.
Chapter 9
II: Through the Cloud Blanket
Richard and Joan plummet through Jupiter's atmosphere in their vessel, surviving a violent landing on a solid world. After the crash, they assess their injuries and prepare to test the alien atmosphere for breathability, discussing the potential dangers of toxic gases.
Chapter 10
III: What the Camera Showed
Richard and Joan examine photographic plates from a small horizon camera, revealing wasplike creatures on Jupiter's surface. As they discuss the implications, the creatures suddenly appear inside the ship, paralyzing the crew and suspending them in webs, suggesting a parasitic intent.
Chapter 11
IV: Eddington's Oscillations
Richard and Joan are trapped in a web aboard their ship, surrounded by giant wasp-like aliens that have been implanting eggs in the crew. Richard realizes the wasps are shrinking due to Eddington's oscillations—a cyclical contraction and expansion of matter. As the wasps dwindle, the web slackens, allowing them to escape. They rocket upward through Jupiter's atmosphere, but face an uncertain future without a crew or navigational guidance.
Chapter 12
The Sky Trap
Aboard the stratoship Perseus, Lawton and the crew face a terrifying alien bubble that traps them with rapidly growing, noxious vegetation. The crew's morale collapses as they struggle against the suffocating growth and their own psychological breaking points. Lawton fights to maintain command, and they barely escape as the bubble thins, revealing a monstrous slug-like creature on a floating island of vegetation. Meanwhile, Dr. Stephen Halday, whose experiments may have caused the bubbles, feels uneasy but continues his work.
Chapter 13
The Mercurian
Rawley confronts a frog-like alien being that has drained the energy from his frozen crewmates. The alien reveals it can absorb and restore atomic energy, and that the ship is being towed by other Mercurians to a museum. Rawley discovers he can read the alien's thoughts and realizes it fears losing him as a specimen. He manages to activate the ship's engines, escaping Mercury and forcing the alien to submit to being exhibited on Earth in exchange for sunlight.
Chapter 14
I: Graveyard of Old Ships
Lucky Jim Sanders, down on his luck after losing his fortune, meets Pete in a valley of derelict spaceships. Together they devise a scheme to acquire a ship by bluffing the yardmaster into thinking Jim still has money. Jim selects an old ship and, despite Pete's fears, takes off abruptly at full power, demonstrating his reckless confidence. The chapter establishes Jim's character and his bond with Pete as they embark on a journey back to Earth.
Chapter 15
Planet Shift
Jim and Pete are disoriented when they see Saturn instead of Jupiter outside their viewpane, leading to a crisis of sanity. A mysterious woman in an old spacesuit appears, glides past them, and exits through a gravity panel into space. Jim resolves to help her despite Pete's fears of madness.
Chapter 16
III: The Mirage Pup
Jim recounts his harrowing experience on the hull of the spaceship, where he encounters a terrifying electrolube and a woman he cannot save. After returning inside, Pete explains that the woman was a mirage projected by a mirage pup—a small, furry creature from Pluto that can make thoughts appear three-dimensional. Jim is left grappling with despair and a sense of loss for a woman a century dead.
Chapter 17
IV: New York Kid
The narrator lands at La Guardia spaceport in New York with Pete and the mirage pup, Flipover. The pup leads them through the city to a house where a woman, Barbara, recognizes the pup as her grandmother's long-lost pet, Tow Tow. The narrator and Barbara fall in love, marry, and have a son, Bobby. Pete disappears that night, and the narrator wonders if Pete might have hibernated in deep space like the mirage pup.
Chapter 18
Time Trap
Charley Grimes, a seasoned space explorer, recounts a harrowing experience on the dark side of the Moon where he encountered a time-dissolving alien entity. After sliding into a valley, he finds footprints that are not his own and discovers a cave where he sees visions of his past and future selves. The creature, described as a living shuttlecock, uses a web to fragment time, attempting to drain his life force. With the help of his younger self, Charley destroys the creature, but the ordeal leaves him profoundly shaken and reflective.
Chapter 19
The Miniature Menace
The chapter explores the unsettling discovery of miniature alien beings and the psychological and survival challenges they pose to the human characters, highlighting themes of fear, isolation, and the unknown.
Chapter 20
I
Tom awakens in a Mars construction camp with a sense of death nearby. He recounts the harsh realities of life on Mars—privation, dust, and theft—and introduces the legendary figure Larsen, a scapegoat for the camp's misdeeds. Tom wakes Harry and reveals he heard a terrifying scream from the well, and they go to investigate together.
Chapter 21
II
The narrator and Harry discover the body of Ned, a beloved camp member, with his skull crushed. They find large footprints nearby and suspect murder, possibly motivated by jealousy over Molly Egan. They decide to consult Bill Seaton, a respected leader, to handle the situation discreetly and investigate the killer among them.
Chapter 22
III
Bill and Tom interrogate the camp after Ned's murder, focusing on Jim Kenny as a suspect due to his interest in Molly. However, Kenny's shoes don't match the footprints, shifting suspicion to Tom himself when his shoes appear to fit the prints. Tensions rise as the camp whispers and Molly's affections complicate the investigation.
Chapter 23
IV
The narrator is pursued by a lynch mob on Mars, but the attack is interrupted by the appearance of a brutal, monstrous figure who kills several men. The mob turns on the creature, which is shot and falls into a canal. The narrator reconciles with Molly, and they discuss the possibility that the Martians used telepathic powers to create a monster from human memories, specifically the murderer Larsen.
Chapter 24
The Mississippi Saucer
Jimmy and his sister Pigtail Anne witness a flying saucer crash into the Mississippi River, but their uncle Al is more concerned about an impending feud with the Harmon family. After a tense encounter with the Harmons, Jimmy and Pigtail are saved from cottonmouth snakes by a mysterious disk that emerges from the river. The disk returns Uncle Al and Pigtail safely, leaving Jimmy with a lump of gold and a promise of a better future.
Chapter 25
Lake of Fire
Steve discovers a Martian mirror in the desert, which contains the living image of a woman from a dead civilization. Despite warnings from his companion Tom about the dangers of such mirrors, Steve becomes obsessed. They are attacked by desert scavengers, and Steve is wounded. Tom reveals his true identity as Tulan Sharm, the Temporal Ruler of the Seven Cities, and uses advanced technology to defeat the attackers, while Steve remains fixated on the mirror.
Chapter 26
The Timeless Ones
Ned and Cynthia Jackson return to a colony world after ten years to find that the Sweeney family and others have not aged. The child Mary Sweeney appears unchanged, and Tommy Sweeney demonstrates the ability to walk through walls, claiming to have learned it from 'The Green People.' Ned speculates that the Green People may be connected to the ancient Druids, who believed time was an illusion. The chapter ends with the Jacksons witnessing eerie green light and robed figures dancing around the Sweeney home.
Chapter 27
Little Men of Space
John Elwood, a scientist, interacts with his children Mary Anne and Melvin, showing them his rocket in the basement. Later, the children encounter three small alien beings who communicate telepathically and threaten them, revealing the aliens' coldly logical and survival-driven mindset.
Chapter 28
The Man the Martians Made
A man is transformed by Martians into a being with enhanced abilities and a new purpose, navigating his altered identity and the reactions of those around him.
Chapter 29
I
Tom awakens in a Mars construction camp with a sense of death nearby. He recounts the harsh realities of life on Mars—privation, dust, and theft—and introduces the legendary figure Larsen, a scapegoat for the camp's misdeeds. Tom wakes Harry and reveals he heard a terrifying scream from the well, and they go to investigate together.
Chapter 30
II
The narrator and Harry discover the body of Ned, a beloved camp member, with his skull crushed. They find large footprints nearby and suspect murder, possibly motivated by jealousy over Molly Egan. They decide to consult Bill Seaton, a respected leader, to handle the situation discreetly and investigate the killer among them.
Chapter 31
III
Bill and Tom interrogate the camp after Ned's murder, focusing on Jim Kenny as a suspect due to his interest in Molly. However, Kenny's shoes don't match the footprints, shifting suspicion to Tom himself when his shoes appear to fit the prints. Tensions rise as the camp whispers and Molly's affections complicate the investigation.
Chapter 32
IV
The narrator is pursued by a lynch mob on Mars, but the attack is interrupted by the appearance of a brutal, monstrous figure who kills several men. The mob turns on the creature, which is shot and falls into a canal. The narrator reconciles with Molly, and they discuss the possibility that the Martians used telepathic powers to create a monster from human memories, specifically the murderer Larsen.
Chapter 33
The Man from Time
Daring Moonson, a time traveler from the year 3689, grapples with an overwhelming 'Time Fear' that threatens to consume him. Despite his proud name and his role as a scholar traveling through history in the Time Observatory, he finds himself paralyzed by a dread of the past and the machine itself. He recalls how for twenty-seven days he felt safe behind the protective shields, observing historical events like a spectator, but a horrible incident awakened buried childhood fears. Now, even the sight of his beloved wife Rutella cannot fully ease his torment. In a desperate bid for freedom, he secretly prepares to escape into the past, manipulating the controls to open the machine's iris just enough for one man. He leaps from the Time Observatory into the unknown, hoping to conquer his fear by confronting the past directly.
Chapter 34
The Calm Man
Sally Anders recalls her youth and her whirlwind romance with a mysterious, calm man who becomes her husband. Years later, she is summoned to his office, where she discovers he is not human but a Martian who has spent eight years repairing a spaceship. He reveals that he has used an android stand-in at work and plans to take their son Tommy back to Mars, leaving Sally behind. Paralyzed by grief, she watches them leave, clinging to the hope that Tommy will always be her son.
Chapter 35
Mr. Caxton Draws a Martian Bird
Peter and Susan Ashley, left in the care of the cruel and ill-tempered Mr. Caxton while their parents explore the Martian desert, report seeing a large bird. Mr. Caxton mocks them, insisting no animal life exists on Mars, and forces Peter to look at a drawing of an impossibly fragile Martian bird. When Peter admits the bird he saw did not look like that, Mr. Caxton calls him a liar and shoves him to the floor. Dr. and Mrs. Ashley return just in time to witness the assault; Dr. Ashley punches Mr. Caxton, and Mrs. Ashley threatens him, causing him to flee in terror. Dr. Ashley comforts Peter, explaining that malicious envy drives such cruelty.
Chapter 36
The Cottage
Will Durkin returns from town with a dollhouse, intending to use it to spy on his stepchildren's true feelings. His harshness and cruelty are contrasted with the children's innocent play. As Durkin's malice grows, a strange atomic test causes a dimensional shift, and a giant child from another dimension picks him up and hangs him inside the cottage.
Chapter 37
Two Way Destiny
The narrator and Kallatah find themselves in a dangerous jungle on Dracona, where they are attacked by native poltergeists using mental powers. The narrator explains that the natives are angered by Kallatah's capture of a 'Servant of the Mountain' and that they must act to appease them. He kisses her as part of a ruse, and later reveals he is actually the Supreme Councillor and Guide from Terra, leading to a romantic union.
Chapter 38
Preview
Mr. Scanlon introduces a 'stripped' actress named Stella to a group of critics during a film preview. The film begins as a Western but is interrupted by a bizarre, alien-like creature and Stella's transformation into a blue-green, tentacled being. Mr. Scanlon vanishes, and the narrative hints at an alien invasion that will erase all memory of Earth's wonders.
Chapter 39
Young Man with a Trumpet
After Man leaves Earth, the animals attempt to create music to fill the void left by humanity. Various animals try and fail to produce beautiful sounds, until a monkey plays a golden trumpet, producing music that surpasses anything Man ever achieved.
