“It Happened on Mars ...,” a 1951 vignette written by Salem Lane

Thanks to the awesome French website Mars et la SF, I just finished reading “It Happened on Mars ...,” a 1951 vignette written by Salem Lane that was originally published in the July 1951 issue of Amazing Stories magazine. Here are the opening lines:

THE Martian night comes down fast. There isn’t enough air to give a nice long diffused dusk and the result is you’re in blackness before you know it. It’s an eerie feeling, too.

I picked out a suitable rocky hummock and prepared to bed down for the night. It’s always wise to get off flat desert ground if you can--the Silicoids don’t like to move vertically...

Thanks, Doc Mars!