Эрл Гарднер - The Human Zero. The Science Fiction Stories of Erle Stanley Gardner

As he looked, it struck, struck the desert with such force that it seemed a volcano must have opened. There was a white spot of incandescent heat, a burst of flame as oxygen ignited, then nothing but a single glowing coal that melted away finally into nothing.

Far to one side, higher up, he could see the girl’s parachute, swinging in the white moonlight like a gigantic mushroom.

Down he drifted.

The surface was farther away than he had anticipated. It took them an appreciable length of time to come down. And a desert wind whipped them far to the east.

At length Click saw the ground, a white blur, coming to meet him. He braced himself, struck, tugged at the ’chute to spill the wind, and then wrestled with the harness.

The ’chute swung over, crackled in the wind, was whisked away. The silence of the desert gripped him.

“Oh, Click,” he heard a voice, and his ears had never heard a more welcome sound.

“Here, dearest,” he answered.

They found each other, melted in a single affectionate embrace. Then they began their long walk.

Somewhere to the north a coyote howled.

The moon bathed them with mellow benediction. The lights of the town twinkled in the frosty desert air.

Then there was the sweep of a searchlight. An automobile blared its horn. Another came down from the north. They could see the path of the lights, see them come to a stop, see shadowy figures moving about.

“Let’s go there. We can get a lift,” said Click.

She nodded, increased her stride.

Yet it was an hour before they reached the place, and by that time a circle of machines had gathered.

“By George, I believe — yes, it’s where the shell struck!” said Click.

They joined the throng, unnoticed.

A deep crater was in the sand. About it the sand itself had been melted by the heat of that which had happened. A twisted lump of discolored, seared metal was out on one side of the rim.

“Meteor,” explained one of the spectators. “They seen it strike an’ been digging for it. Just found it. Funny it ain’t bigger. Looked like she weighed ten ton when she come down. You folks goin’ to town? Guess the show’s all over here.”

Click nodded.

“Thanks. We’ll ride,” he said.

The desert man piloted a rattling flivver, covered with white dust, over the desert roads.

“Lookin’ for mines?” he asked.

Click shook his head.

“Looking for a preacher,” he remarked.

The girl started, squeezed his arm.

“Aren’t you rather abrupt?” she asked.

Click nodded. “Bet your life I am. We’ve got to see a preacher, and then we’ve got to see a gem expert and cash in a few thousand dollars’ worth of gems. After that? After that we’ve got to learn to keep quiet about where we’ve been and what happened. Let the Wagner shell remain one of the unsolved mysteries.”

“Yes,” she said after a while. “It’s better so. We’re in a new country. We’ll just begin life here and forget the other.”

The desert man looked back at them curiously.

“Elopers, eh? Well, you’re gettin’ a good start. See that bright star over there in the east? That’s Venus, the star of lovers. It’s the mornin’ star these days. Be daylight in coupla hours.”

The two turned, joined the gaze of the desert man in looking at the bright planet. But he would have been surprised could he have fathomed their thoughts at that moment.

A picturesque example: When he was revising “The Shrieking Skeleton,” he pounded the skin off the ends of the two fingers he used for typing, covered the fingers with adhesive tape, and continued “hammering away on the blood-spattered keys” until the job was done.

For a summary of his life, including some of his methods of working, see Dorothy B. Hughes, Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1978).

Such a study has now been published: Francis L. and Roberta B. Fugate, Secrets of the Worlds Best-Selling Writer: The Storytelling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980).

Charles G. Waugh and David Schroeder, “Here’s Looking at You Kids: A Profile of Science Fiction Fans,” Anthro-Tech: A Journal of Speculative Anthropology. Fall, 1978, pp. 12–19. Copies may be obtained from Dr. Darlene Thomas, Lockhaven State College, Lock-haven, PA 17745, for $1.00.