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    Duel on Syrtis
    Duel on Syrtis
    Duel on Syrtis
    Ebook47 pages34 minutes

    Duel on Syrtis

    By Poul William Anderson

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJun 1, 2011
    Duel on Syrtis

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    • 4/5
      A very entertaining short
    • 4/5
      Once enslaved by humans, Martians have been emancipated by new liberal government. Since then, it has become illegal to kill them, but the law is of no concern to Riordan, a renowned interplanetary game hunter from Earth. He travels to the red planet hoping for a chance to bag one of the natives. A local guide equips Riordan and sets him on the trail of Kreega, an experienced and reclusive Martian warrior who despises humans. This is precisely the kind of challenge Riordan craves, but will this hunt be his last?

    Book preview

    Duel on Syrtis - Poul William Anderson

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of Duel on Syrtis, by Poul William Anderson

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: Duel on Syrtis

    Author: Poul William Anderson

    Release Date: May 19, 2010 [EBook #32436]

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUEL ON SYRTIS ***

    Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online

    Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

    Transcriber's Note:

    This etext was produced from Planet Stories March 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

    Wearily, Kreega scrambled up on top of the rock and crouched there....

    duel on SYRTIS

    by POUL ANDERSON

    Bold and ruthless, he was famed throughout the System as a big-game hunter. From the firedrakes of Mercury to the ice-crawlers of Pluto, he'd slain them all. But his trophy-room lacked one item; and now Riordan swore he'd bag the forbidden game that roamed the red deserts ... a Martian!

    he night whispered the message. Over the many miles of loneliness it was borne, carried on the wind, rustled by the half-sentient lichens and the dwarfed trees, murmured from one to another of the little creatures that huddled under crags, in caves, by shadowy dunes. In no words, but in a dim pulsing of dread which echoed through Kreega's brain, the warning ran—

    They are hunting again.

    Kreega shuddered in a sudden blast of wind. The night was enormous around him, above him, from the iron bitterness of the hills to the wheeling, glittering constellations light-years over his head. He reached out with his trembling perceptions, tuning himself to the brush and the wind and the small burrowing things underfoot, letting the night speak to him.

    Alone, alone. There was not another Martian for a hundred miles of emptiness. There were only the tiny animals and the shivering brush and the thin, sad blowing of the wind.

    The voiceless scream of dying traveled through the brush, from plant to plant, echoed by the fear-pulses of the animals and the ringingly reflecting cliffs. They were curling, shriveling and blackening as the rocket poured the glowing death down on them, and the withering veins and nerves cried to the stars.

    Kreega huddled against a tall gaunt crag. His eyes were like yellow moons in the darkness, cold with terror and hate and a slowly gathering resolution. Grimly, he estimated that the death was being sprayed in a circle some

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