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; "Never hed the captain "I had dreams too In all of my fifty years I never had a dream until that week before we took off froht I dreaht on a snowy hill Shot with a silver bullet Buried with a stake in my heart" He moved his head toward Mars "Do you think, S?"
"We don't know if thereare Martian people, sir"
"Don't we? They began frightening us off eight weeks ago, before we started They've killed Perse and Reynolds now Yesterday they o blind How? I don't know Bats, needles, drea for no reason I'd call it witchcraft in another day But this is the year 2120, S But it is! Whoever they are, with their needles and their bats, they'll try to finish us all" He swung about "Smith, fetch those books from my file I want them e land"
Two hundred books were piled on the rocket deck
"Thank you, Slanced at them? Think I'm insane? Perhaps It's a crazy hunch At that last moment I ordered these books frohts I was stabbed, butchered, a screaround in a black box; bad, wicked dreas, va about Why? Because books on such ghastly subjects were destroyed a century ago By law Forbidden for anyone to own the grisly volumes These books you see here are thelast copies, kept for historical purposes in the locked museum vaults"
Smith bent to read the dusty titles:
"Tales of Mystery and Iar Allan PoeDracula, by Brain StokerFrankenstein, by Mary ShelleyThe Turn of the Screw, by Henry JaRappaccini's Daughter, by Nathaniel HawthorneAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose BierceAlice in Wonderland, by Lewis CarrollThe Willows, by Algernon BlackwoodThe Wizard of Oz, by L Frank BaumThe Weird Shadow Over Innsmouth, by H P Lovecraft And more! Books by Walter de la Mare, Wakefield, Harvey, Wells, Asquith, Huxley--all forbidden authors All burned in the same year that Halloas outlawed and Christood are these to us on the rocket?"
"I don't know," sighed the captain, "yet"
The three bags lifted the crystal where the captain's ilass:
"I don't know," sighed the captain, "yet"
The three witches glared redly into one another's faces
"We haven't much time," said one
"Better warnThem in the City"
"They'll want to know about the books It doesn't look good That fool of a captain!"
"In an hour they'll land their rocket"