A Brand New World By Ray Cummings Copyright 1928 by The Frank A. Munsey Company _A new planet in the solar system! And in its wake come mystery, danger--and a most amazing confusion._ This story appeared originally in The Argosy All-Story Weekly, beginning serialization September 22, 1928. [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Famous Fantastic Mysteries September 1942.] CONTENTS I. THE COMING OF THE WORLD II. THE WHITE GIRL IN THE MOONLIGHT III. THE CROWNING TERROR IV. ZETTA V. CRIMSON SOUND! VI. "IF I HAD BUT KNOWN!" VII. MYSTERIOUS STAR, IMPERTURBABLY SHINING! VIII. FROM ACROSS THE VOID IX. PIONEERS INTO SPACE X. LANDING TO FACE THE UNKNOWN XI. "UNDER GARDENS" XII. AT DAWN XIII. "EMPEROR OF THE EARTH!" XIV. BRAVE, FOOLISH LITTLE ZETTA! XV. GRAFF'S TREACHERY XVI. ON OUR WAY TO CONQUER THE EARTH! XVII. PLANNING THE CONQUEST XVIII. THE EARTH AT BAY! XIX. RED MADNESS STALKING THE EARTH XX. THE NIGHT PROWLERS XXI. A NEST OF VERMIN XXII. PEACE ON EARTH [Illustration: As if affected by laughing gas, thousands of people were seized with an insane mirth, following a period of strange depression. A world gone mad! Actions were aimless, horror and suicides were spreading everywhere! And always that terrible laughter. . . . What would happen to the human race?]] CHAPTER I THE COMING OF THE WORLD The new Star was first observed on the night of October 4, 1952, reported by the Clarkson Observatory, near London. A few hours later the observers at Washington saw it also; and still later, it was found and identified as unknown upon one of the photographic plates of the great refracting telescope of Flagstaff, Arizona. By observers at Table Mountain, Cape Town, and the observatory near Buenos Aires, it was not seen, for it was in the northern heavens. The affair brought a brief mention in the Amalgamated Broadcasters' report the next day; and the newspapers carried a few lines of it on their back pages. Nothing more.