Teen-Age Nature Stories Edited by A. L. Furman _The Teen-Age Library_ _TEEN-AGE_ SUPER SCIENCE STORIES By RICHARD M. ELAM, Jr. _Illustrated by_ Frank E. Vaughn Grosset & Dunlap _Publishers_ NEW YORK Copyright © 1957 by Lantern Press, Inc. BY ARRANGEMENT WITH LANTERN PRESS, INC. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 57-8908 PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN CANADA BY GEORGE J. MCLEOD, LIMITED, TORONTO MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS _The First Man Into Space_ 9 _Mystery Eyes Over Earth_ 33 _Race Around the Sun_ 43 _Flight of the Centaurus_ 58 _Expedition Pluto_ 73 _Mercy Flight to Luna_ 95 _The Peril from Outer Space_ 106 _The Ghost Ship of Space_ 149 _Space Steward_ 227 ILLUSTRATIONS _Cold, bulging eyes peered into his own_ 70 _That pledge of secrecy for you begins at this instant_ 110 _Clay’s hand guided the burning instrument to within inches of the top of the bomb_ 143 _Almost exhausted, he pulled the ladder across and out of their reach_ 209 _The unicorn rushed up the slope, his head lowered and his frightening ivory horn poised for attack_ 245 THE FIRST MAN INTO SPACE Cadet Marshall Farnsworth woke from a nightmare of exploding novae and fouling rockets. After recovering from his fright, he laughed contemptuously at himself. “Here I was picked as the most stable of a group of two hundred cadets,” he thought, “and chosen to make man’s first trip into space, yet I’m shaking like a leaf.” He got out of bed and went over to the window. From his father’s temporary apartment, he could see distant Skyharbor, the scene of the plunge into space tomorrow night. He had been awarded the frightening honor of making that trip.