Expanded Universe

FOREWORD

This story was written twenty - one years before Dr. Neil Armstrong took "one short step for a man, a giant leap for mankind" - hut in all important essentials it has not (yet) become dated. True, we do not know that formations such as "morning glories" exist on Luna and we do not know that there are areas where footgear midway between skis and snowshoes would be useful. But the Lunar surface is about equal in area to Africa; a dozen men have explored an area smaller than Capetown for a total of a few days. We will still be exploring Luna and finding new wonders there when the first interstellar explorers return from Proxima Centauri or Tau Ceti.

This story is compatible with the so - called "Future History" stories. It is also part of my continuing postwar - II attempt to leave the SF - pulp field and spread out. I never left the genre pulps entirely, as it turned out to be easy to write a book - length job, then break it into three or four cliff - hangers and sell it as a pulp serial immediately before book publication. I did this with a dozen novels in the '40s and '5Os. But I recall only one story (GULF) specifically written for pulp, GULF being for Astounding's unique "prophesied" issue.

Deus volent, I may someday collect my Boy Scout stories as one volume just as I would like to do with the Puddin' stories.