Andre Norton (ed)

Edited
with an Introduction and Notes by
ANDRE
NORTON

stories
by
Eric
Frank Russell H. B.
Fyfe
• Raymond
Z.
Gallun
K.
Houston Brunner • James Schmitz Fritz
Leiber • Raymond
F.
Jones and Jerome
Bixby

SPACE
PIONEERS

New York
and Cleveland

THE
WORLD
PUBLISHING
COMPANY

library
of congress catalog card number:
54~5338
first edition

A
cknowledgments

The
Publishers wish to acknowledge with thanks permission to use the following
stories

contained
in this volume:

"The
Illusionaries" by Eric Frank Russell.
Copyright November 1951 by Love Romances,
Inc. Reprinted from
Planet
Stories
by
permission of Otis Kline, Associates, Inc.

"Moonwalk" by H. B. Fyfe. Copyright
November 1952 by Space Publications, Inc. Reprinted from
Space Science Fiction
by permission of the author.

"Trail Blazer" by Raymond Z. Callun.
Copyright 1951 by Better Publications, Inc.
Reprinted from
Fantastic
Story Magazine
by
permission of the author
's
agent, Frederik Pohl.

"Thou Good and
Faithful" by K. Houston Brunner.
Copyright March 1953 by Street & Smith
Publications, Inc. Reprinted from
Astounding Science-Fiction
by permission of the author.

"End of the Line" by James Schmitz.
Copyright July 1951 by Street & Smith
Publications, Inc. Reprinted from
Astounding Science-Fiction
with their permission.

"A Pail of Air"
by Fritz Leiber.
Copyright December 1951 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation.
Reprinted from
Galaxy
by permission
of publisher and author.

"The Farthest
Horizon" by Raymond F. Jones.
Copyright April 195a by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. Reprinted
from
Astounding
Science-Fiction
by
permission of the author's agent, Scott Meredith.

"Asteroid of
Fear" by Raymond Z. Gallun.
Copyright March 1951 by Love Romances, Inc. Reprinted from
Planet Stories
by permission of the publisher.

"Page and Player"
by Jerome Bixby.
Copyright August 195a by Better Publications, Inc. Reprinted from
Startling Stories
by permission of the author^ agent, Frederik
Pohl.

hc
254

Copyright
1954
by
The
World
Publishing Company.
AU
rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher, except
for brief passages included in a review appearing in a newspaper or magazine.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

Preface

Pioneers
on this world have always been of two types.

First, the restless explorers who must learn what lies beyond the next
mountain, in the depths of the next valley.
Men who set no roots in any soil, build no
homes, who exist only for the eternal quest, driven by the desire to
see—see-There were the "Long Rifles," the woodsrunning contemporaries
of Kenton and Boone, the "Mountain Men" who were one with Carson and
Bridger, the breakers of new trails. Often unstable of temperament, plagued by
restlessness, they swept out to map and explore continents.

And
when man reaches into space there shall
rise
other
"Long Rifles" and "Mountain Men," granted new designations,
perhaps, but of the same old breed. These shall chart dim trails between planet
and planet, star and star, across alien worlds where human feet will leave new,
strange tracks. And yet never shall they be satisfied, but their roving will
continue, on and out, and up—

In the traces of the explorers tread the
second type, the settlers, those who are willing to fight adverse climate,
hostile natives, tough soil, to build new nations and civilizations. That same
family group, which crossed the eastern mountains to claim "tomahawk
rights" in the "dark and bloody ground," producing sons and
daughters who, a generation later, dared to cross the plains in white-topped
wagons, will be found again among the space-ship voyagers who go to break the
soil of Venus, plow up the rusty red dust of Mars, trail out into the galaxy
driven by the ancient hunger for new land, or because they are in active
rebellion against conditions at home. They shall take root on those worlds the
explorers have prospected, and will face down the nameless terrors and

8

preface

dangers
of the alien with the same stubborn spirit
which kept earlier settlers steady at the loopholes in a fort's stockade.

Together
go the pioneers of free space—the explorer and the settler—two arms of the same
vigorous body—undefeatable by Man, alien or space itself I

A
ndre
N
orton

The editor wishes to express appreciation for
the help of Nan Hanlin, Harlan Elision, and Bradford Day in locating the
stories here included.

Contents

Preface
                                                                                                     
7

THE EXPLORERS
                                                                                          
11

E
arth

The Illusionaries
by Eric Frank Russell
                                          
13

M
oon

Moonwalk
by H. B. Fyfe
                                                                     
35

M
ars

Trail Blazer
by
Raymond Z.
Gallun
                                                  
80

O
ther
S
ystems
Thou Good and Faithful
by K. Houston
Brunner
                       
102

O
ther
S
ystems
The
End of the Line
by James
Schmitz
                                         
151

THE SETTLERS
                                                                                           
191

E
arth

A Pail of Air
by Fritz
Leiber
                                                             
193

M
ars

The Farthest Horizon
by Raymond F. Jones
                                
208

A
steroid
B
elt

Asteroid of Fear
by Raymond
Z.
Gallun
                                       
228

O
ther
S
ystems
Page and Player
by Jerome Bixby
                                                    
268