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Brigands of the Moon by Ray Cummings
The Adventures of Gregg Haljan
Brigands of the Moon – Gregg Haljan, Third Officer of the Planetara, must fight Martian pirates and Earth traitors to protect the precious radium ore found on the Moon from being hijacked.
Book Details
Book Details
One of the great early space opera novels, Brigands of the Moon by Ray Cummings (1887-1957) was serialized in four parts in Astounding Stories of Super Science in its March through June, 1930 issues. Gregg Haljan, Third Officer of the Planetara, must fight Martian pirates and Earth traitors to protect the precious radium ore found on the Moon from being hijacked.
Brigands of the Moon – The Book of Gregg Haljan
Chapter I – Tells of the Grantline Moon Expedition and of the Mysterious Martian Who Followed Us in the City Corridor
Chapter II – “A Fleeting Glance––”
Chapter III – In the Helio-room
Chapter IV – A Burn on a Martian Arm
Chapter V – Venza the Venus Girl
Chapter VI – A Traitor, and a Passing Asteroid
Chapter VII – Unspoken Love
Chapter VIII – A Scream in the Night
Chapter IX – The Murder in A-22
Chapter X – A Speck of Human Earth-dust, Falling Free….
Chapter XI – The Electrical Eavesdropper
Chapter XII – The Weightless Combat
Chapter XIII – The Torture
Part Two – Out of awful space tumbled the Space-ship Planetara towards the Moon, her officers dead, with bandits at her helm—and the controls out of order!
Chapter XIV – The Brigand Leader
Chapter XV – The Masquerader
Chapter XVI – In the Blue-lit Corridor
Chapter XVII – A Woman of Mars
Chapter XVIII – Marooned on an Asteroid
Chapter XIX – In the Zed-light Glow
Chapter XX – The Grantline Camp
Chapter XXI – The Wreck of the Planetara
Chapter XXII – The Hiss of Death”
Part Three – Gregg and Anita risk quick, sure death in a desperate bluff on the ruthless Martian brigands.
Chapter XXIII – The Prowling Watchman
Chapter XXIV – Imprisoned!
Chapter XXV – The Combat on the Crater-top
Chapter XXVI – At Bay
Chapter XXVII – Anita’s Plan
Chapter XXVIII – The Ascent of Archimedes
Chapter XXIX – On the Brigand Ship
Chapter XXX – Desperate Plans
Chapter XXXI – In the Tower Cubby
Chapter XXXII – A Speck Amid the Stars
Chapter XXXIII – Besieged!
Conclusion – The besieged Earth-men wage grim, ultra-scientific war with Martian bandits in a last great struggle for their radium-ore—and their lives.
Chapter XXXIV – The First Encounters
Chapter XXXV – Desperate Offensive
Chapter XXXVI – The Battle in the Crater
Chapter XXXVII – In the Pressure Lock
Chapter XXXVIII – Triumph!
Chapter XXXIX – My Exit
Brigands of the Moon has 5 illustrations

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Excerpt: Brigands of the Moon
Chapter I
Tells of the Grantline Moon Expedition and of the Mysterious Martian Who Followed Us in the City Corridor
…
“My introduction: My name, Gregg Haljan. My age, twenty-five years. I was, at the time my narrative begins, Third Officer on the Space-Ship Planetara. Our line was newly established; in 2070, to be exact, following the modern improvements of the Martel Magnetic Levitation.
OUR ship, whose home port was Great-New York, carried mail and passenger traffic to and from both Venus and Mars. Of astronomical necessity, our flights were irregular. This spring, with the two other planets both close to the earth, we were making two complete round trips. We had just arrived in Great-New York, this May evening, from Grebhar, Venus Free State. With only five hours in port here, we were departing the same night at the zero hour for Ferrok-Shahn, capital of the Martian Union.
We were no sooner at the landing stage than I found a code-flash summoning Dan Dean and me to Divisional Detective Headquarters. Dan “Snap” Dean was one of my closest friends. He was radio-helio operator of the Planetara. A small, wiry, red-headed chap, with a quick, ready laugh and a wit that made everyone like him.
The summons to Detective-Colonel Halsey’s office surprised us. Snap eyed me.
“You haven’t been opening any treasury vaults, have you, Gregg?”
“He wants you, also,” I retorted.
He laughed. “Well, he can roar at me like a traffic switchman and my private life will remain my own.”
We could not think why we should be wanted. It was the darkness of mid-evening when we left the Planetara for Halsey’s office. It was not a long trip. We went direct in the upper monorail, descending into the subterranean city at Park-Circle 30.
WE HAD never been to Halsey’s office before. We found it to be a gloomy, vaultlike place in one of the deepest corridors. The door lifted.
“Gregg Haljan and Daniel Dean.”
The guard stood aside. “Come in.”
I own that my heart was unduly thumping as we entered. The door dropped behind us. It was a small blue-lit apartment––a steel-lined room like a vault.
Colonel Halsey sat at his desk. And the big, heavy-set, florid Captain Carter––our commander of the Planetara––was here. That surprised us: we had not seen him leave the ship.
Halsey smiled at us gravely. Captain Carter said, “Sit down, lads.”
We took the seats. There was an alarming solemnity about this. If I had been guilty of anything that I could think of, it would have been frightening. But Halsey’s first words reassured me.
“It’s about the Grantline Moon Expedition. In spite of our secrecy, the news has gotten out. We want to know how. Can you tell us?”
Captain Carter’s huge bulk––he was about as tall as I am––towered over us as we sat before Halsey’s desk. “If you lads have told anyone––said anything––let slip the slightest hint about it––”
Snap smiled with relief; but he turned solemn at once. “I haven’t. Not a word!”
“Nor have I,” I declared.
THE Grantline Moon Expedition! We had not thought of that as a reason for this summons. Johnny Grantline was a close friend to us both. He had organized an exploring expedition to the Moon. Uninhabited, with its bleak, forbidding, airless, waterless surface, the Moon––even though so close to the Earth––was seldom visited. No regular ship ever stopped there. A few exploring parties of recent years had come to grief.
But there was a persistent rumor that upon the Moon, mineral riches of fabulous wealth were awaiting discovery. The thing had already caused some interplanetary complications. The aggressive Martians would be only too glad to explore the Moon. But the U.S.W. definitely warned them away. The Moon was World Territory, we announced, and we would protect it as such.
The threatened conflict between the Earth and Mars had come to nothing. There was, this year of 2079, a thorough amity between all three of the inhabited planets. It still holds, and I pray that it may always hold.
There was, nevertheless, a realization by our government, that whatever riches might be upon the Moon should be seized at once and held by some reputable Earth Company. And when Johnny Grantline applied, with his father’s wealth and his own scientific record of attainment, the government was only too glad to grant him its writ.”
Excerpt From: Ray Cummings. “Brigands of the Moon.”

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