Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Highways in Hiding By: George O. Smith (1911-1981) |
---|
![]()
GEORGE O. SMITH
A LANCER BOOK 1967 Copyright 1956 by George O. Smith
Highways in Hiding is based upon material originally copyrighted by
Greenleaf Publishing Co., 1955. All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 56 10457
Printed in the U.S.A.
Cover painting by Roy G. Krenkel LANCER BOOKS, INC., 185 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016 [Transcriber's note: This is a rule 6 clearance. PG has not been able
to find a U.S. copyright renewal.]
For my drinking uncle DON and, of course MARIAN
Historical Note
In the founding days of Rhine Institute the need arose for a new
punctuation mark which would indicate on the printed page that the
passage was of mental origin, just as the familiar quotation marks
indicate that the words between them were of verbal origin. Accordingly,
the symbol was chosen, primarily because it appears on every
typewriter. Up to the present time, the use of the symbol to indicate directed
mental communication has been restricted to technical papers, term
theses, and scholarly treatises by professors, scholars, and students of
telepathy. Here, for the first time in any popular work, the symbol is used to
signify that the passage between the marks was mental communication. Steve Cornell, M. Ing.
STALEMATE
Macklin said, "Please put that weapon down, Mr. Cornell. Let's not add
attempted murder to your other crimes." "Don't force me to it, then," I told him. But I knew I couldn't do it. I hated them all. I wanted the whole
Highways in Hiding rolled up like an old discarded carpet, with every
Mekstrom on Earth rolled up in it. But I couldn't pull the trigger. The
survivors would have enough savvy to clean up the mess before our bodies
got cold, and the Highways crowd would be doing business at the same old
stand. Without, I might add, the minor nuisance that people call Steve
Cornell. What I really wanted was to find Catherine. And then it came to me that what I really wanted second of all was to
possess a body of Mekstrom Flesh, to be a physical superman....
I
I came up out of the blackness just enough to know that I was no longer
pinned down by a couple of tons of wrecked automobile. I floated on soft
sheets with only a light blanket over me. I hurt all over like a hundred and sixty pounds of boil. My right arm
was numb and my left thigh was aching. Breathing felt like being stabbed
with rapiers and the skin of my face felt stretched tight. There was a
bandage over my eyes and the place was as quiet as the grave. But I knew
that I was not in any grave because my nose was working just barely well
enough to register the unmistakable pungent odor that only goes with
hospitals. I tried my sense of perception, but like any delicate and critical
sense, perception was one of the first to go. I could not dig out beyond
a few inches. I could sense the bed and the white sheets and that was
all. Some brave soul had hauled me out of that crack up before the fuel tank
went up in the fire. I hope that whoever he was, he'd had enough sense
to haul Catherine out of the mess first. The thought of living without
Catherine was too dark to bear, and so I just let the blackness close
down over me again because it cut out all pain, both physical and
mental. The next time I awoke there was light and a pleasant male voice saying,
"Steve Cornell. Steve, can you hear me?" I tried to answer but no sound came out. Not even a hoarse croak. The voice went on, "Don't try to talk, Steve. Just think it." Catherine? I thought sharply, because most medicos are telepath, not
perceptive. "Catherine is all right," he replied. Can I see her? "Lord no!" he said quickly. "You'd scare her half to death the way you
look right now." How bad off am I? "You're a mess, Steve. Broken ribs, compound fracture of the left tibia,
broken humerus. Scars, mars, abrasions, some flashburn and post accident
shock... Continue reading book >>
|
Genres for this book |
---|
Fiction |
Literature |
Science |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – George O. Smith |
Wikipedia – Highways in Hiding |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|