"The Martian Invasion Caper"

I was cleaning the .45 when Rudy came back into the room with a worried look on his face.

"You hear the news?" he said. "The goddam Martians have invaded, over in Jersey."

"No kidding?" I said. "What about the job? We still on for tonight?"

"Sure," he said. "Martian invasion or no Martian invasion, the job is on."

The Martian Invasion Caper, by Horace P. Sternwall, serialized in Fantastic Crime Stories, Jan.-Feb.-March, 1940 {never published in book form}.

(Scroll down the right-hand side of this page to find a listing of links to the opening passages of various other unjustifiably-obscure classics from the prolific Royal portable of Horace P. Sternwall. “Why Sternwall has not yet been given the full-blown Library of America treatment is a mystery to me. I can't believe that not a single one of his books is currently in print. It's a goddam disgrace.” -- Harold Bloom, on The Charlie Rose Show.)