ADRIFT IN THE UNKNOWN (1904) – Written by William Wallace Cook (like our previous story), this tale was originally serialized in Argosy magazine from December of 1904 to April of 1905. Our previous Cook story dealt with time travel, while this one deals with space exploration.
Burglar Peter Munn stumbles onto a meeting between scientist Professor Quinn and the four Robber Barons he has invited to his home. Those guests are Meigs the Wall Street Baron, Gilhooley the Railroad Baron, Popham the Coal Baron and Markham, who has cornered the market in food supply profiteering.
The uninvited Munn winds up taken along for the ride when the civic-minded Quinn reveals that his home is really a spaceship coated with antigravity paint and flies off with the reluctant tycoons in tow. Eventually the space travelers land on the planet Mercury. Continue reading
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