H. L. Gold 28 min read

Parched and staggering onto rubbish-strewn Planetoid 42, two traveling panacea-peddlers, dignified Harvey and gangling Joe, meet in the saloon doorway, each convinced he's seeing a mirage.

H. L. Gold's 1943 story is a delightful comic space opera of con men out-conned on a desert asteroid. Witty, fast, charming golden-age SF. Read it for a genial tale of two smooth grifters who finally meet their match on a dusty little world.

In its time

Published in 1943, during the 1940s, the golden age begins.

Reading it

28 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Bob Lubbers