
A weather‑worn veteran of countless interplanetary jaunts, Charley Grimes spins a tale around a crackling campfire in the Rockies, his voice carrying the chill of the lunar night. He paints the dark side of the Moon in stark, almost tactile detail—glacial valleys, endless star‑filled skies, and a desolate plain that feels as cold as Siberia. As Charley recounts a solitary trek across that barren landscape, his pipe‑laden musings turn uneasy when he discovers a set of massive, square footprints that could not have been his.
The story balances gritty, hard‑boiled narration with a sense of awe for the unknown, inviting listeners to feel the echo of his shout bouncing off crater walls and the creeping dread of an unseen presence. It’s a compact, atmospheric adventure that captures the loneliness of space exploration while hinting at mysteries that may lie hidden in the Moon’s silent reaches.
Language
en
Duration
~24 minutes (23K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-11-21
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1903–1994
A prolific American writer who moved easily between horror, fantasy, and science fiction, he is especially remembered for eerie tales that helped shape the Lovecraft circle. His career stretched across decades, from pulp magazines to later collections and criticism.
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