Charles A. Stearns 12 min read

George Seeling was one of the most personable ghouls you'd ever meet, a publicity-loving museum collector who once stole the crown jewels of Ganymede, and who vanished three years ago on Mars.

Charles A. Stearns's 1954 story is a wry, colorful colonization and adventure tale. Clever, engaging golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story of a flamboyant relic-hunter and his final, mysterious expedition into unexplored Mars, and the strange grave that gives the tale its name.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Joseph Eberle