Produced by Greg Weeks, Roger L. Holda, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Secret of the Ninth Planet _A Science Fiction Novel_ By Donald A. Wollheim Jacket design by James Heugh [Transcriber note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] _Cecile Matschat, Editor_ _Carl Carmer, Consulting Editor_ THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY Philadelphia Toronto Copyright, 1959 By Donald A. Wollheim FIRST EDITION Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 59-5328 _Manufactured in the United States of America_ For-- Three denizens of this minor planet: Eleanor, Bill, and of course Janet. Contents _The Mysterious Ninth World_ 1. _Special Delivery--by Guided Missile_ 2. _The Valley of Stolen Sunlight_ 3. _The Secret of A-G 17_ 4. _The Hidden Skyport_ 5. _Up the Rope of Space_ 6. _Sunward Ho!_ 7. _Hot Spot on Mercury_ 8. _The Veil of Venus_ 9. _The Ocean Primeval_ 10. _The Dying Planet_ 11. _Martians Don't Care_ 12. _At Rope's End_ 13. _The Pole of Callisto_ 14. _Rockets Away!_ 15. _Ice Cold on Oberon_ 16. _In Orbit Around Pluto_ 17. _Stronghold of the Lost Planet_ 18. _Sacrifice on the Sacred Moon_ 19. _The Museum of Galactic Life_ _About the Author_ _The Mysterious Ninth World_ While the circumnavigation of the solar system seems farfetched, it may not be once the problem of effective anti-gravitational control is solved. In this book I have assumed that the many researchers now actually at work on this problem will achieve such a result in the next decade. It is not at all impossible that they may--for we all know that the more minds that work at a problem, the sooner it will be solved. The discovery of a means of negating, reversing or otherwise utilizing the immense force of gravitation for space flight purposes is now thought to be within the bounds of probability. It should occur some time within the next hundred years, possibly in even the short period I assume here. Once solved, the severe handicaps imposed on space exploration by the weight and chemical limitations of rockets would no longer apply. The whole timetable of our conquest of the planets in our solar system would be tremendously speeded up, from hot Mercury all the way out to frigid Pluto. In describing the visits of the spaceship _Magellan_ to the planets, I have endeavored to adhere to known facts and the more reasonable assumptions about each of these worlds. The planet Pluto, however, deserves further comment, occupying as it does both an important role in this adventure and a unique one in actual astronomical lore.