SIGN of LIFE By DAVE DRYFOOS _The death-winds of Venus screamed with glee as George Main lay dying. Then the winds brought strange shapes to haunt him--and a stranger hope--_ [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories July 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] George Main lay dying in the wreckage of the space-ship. Dying--and cursing the deadly wind of Venus. It had killed his mates. It would soon have him. The wind was trying to finish him off right now. It shrieked, moaned, whispered and shouted through the smashed hull where he sprawled in his space-suit. Laughed, too. The wind was a murderer--and was glad. All but he were dead. Soon the grit-laden wind would bury them and their ship. Then all the effort, the skill, the faith--all the ingenuity and labor expended on the expedition--would be wiped away, as invisible as the wind that buried them. Thinking of that, thinking back over each agonizing hour since his landing on Venus, George Main wondered what he should have done, what he could now do, to prevent the utter waste of their efforts and their lives. The wind was his enemy--and the wind couldn't even be seen. Only the dust it carried was visible. Too visible. Dust was so thick in the upper atmosphere that the scope-readers had mistaken dust-clouds for solid ground. With ports blinded by dust, the possibility of that error had been obvious enough. The navigator knew the risk. He chanced it--and lost the toss. George knew he was still alive only because he'd acted like a childish eager-beaver. And had been tolerated by the others because he was the crew's youngest member. Ever since he could read and dream, he'd wanted to be the first man ever to touch the soil of Venus. So, having no duties connected with setting down the ship, he'd gotten into his space-suit and had waited by a hatch. He was standing there when the ship went into the twenty-mile free fall that smashed it. George didn't know who opened the escape hatch and shoved him out. That man was dead, along with the rest of the crew. Unlike George's suit, the space-ship had no parachute. * * * * * He'd landed blind, in dust so thick he didn't know he was down till he got there. For forty-eight hours he'd lain where he fell, waiting for a lull in the storm so he could see the ship. When the wind finally quit, the ship was already half buried. Thirsty, hungry, stinking in the hot suit, George had staggered over windrow after windrow of dust to reach it. He'd broken out an emergency-jug of water, found some uncontaminated food, erected within the hull a small gas-proof tent, and then passed out before he could crawl in the tent to eat and drink.