Frank Belknap Long 19 min read

Two precocious children, back at their table-turning tricks, contend with the impatient, ill-tempered Mr. Caxton, and the strange, chill business of a bird drawn from Mars.

Frank Belknap Long's 1954 story pairs clever children against a sinister menace in a first-contact and horror tale. Sharp, atmospheric golden-age SF. Read it for a story where two sharp-witted kids turn the tables on grown-up villainy and an eerie thing from the red planet.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

19 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).