POGO PLANET By MARTIN PEARSON (_Author of "Cosmos Eye", "The Unfinished City", etc._) Introducing that modest little superman, that shrinking violet of destiny, Ajax Calkins, and a world where you had to hop, in some way, to get where you wanted to go! [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Future combined with Science Fiction October 1941. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] As my ship hit the darkness that was the outer atmosphere of Midplanet, I thrilled to the thought that I, Ajax Calkins, had at last achieved my rightful place among the pioneers of space. Even when my ship bounced on the green soil, flew end over end upwards to come down ka-plunk in the wrong side of a gooey thick swamp, I exulted that I was the first in possession of a major planet that had been overlooked by the rest of the interplanetary crowd. As I picked myself up from the midst of a pile of miscellaneous equipment, hiking ropes, elephant guns, para-rays, spare shoes and cans of Unifood, and rubbed my bruised arms and head, I thought of how many millions would give their all to be in my place. Midplanet! How the whole system had thrilled when its discovery was finally determined last year! For decades science had known there was a planet between Saturn and Uranus, ever since Pickering had proved the perturbations of those planets' orbits pointed to a body between them. Yet telescopes had always failed to detect it. Few had taken it seriously. Yet, it was there. It was discovered finally by electromagnetic induction coils at the Mars Prime Observatory. It was rechecked from Flagstaff and searched for by Tycho Eye. The latter could not see it. It was still invisible, a strangely dark world. It was then that I conceived my great idea. For years I had secretly nourished my grievance against the world into which I found myself born. All the great heroic acts had been done. The major planets pioneered, Gretelspoon had at last opened up Pluto, and there was nothing left for me to do to show that I too was made of godlike stuff. But Midplanet ... there was my chance! Hastily I outfitted a small spaceship with all that I would need. Hastily but craftily I had the orbits charted and the controls processed. My destiny was always certain for had it not been my destiny to come into a large fortune early in life? Surely this had been ordained? Then I had hurtled through space towards Midplanet alone, secretly. The world would not know of my triumph until I returned to tell them and receive their adoring plaudits. Months went past while I endured the hardships of space-sickness, the cosmitch, and voidal ague. At last Midplanet loomed dark in the celestial panorama. Still it cast no light, still it was a black orb sailing silently on its mighty orbit, unattended by any moon.