Chapter 1

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Title: The Radio Man (An Earthman on Venus)
Date of first publication: 1924
Author: Ralph Milne Farley (pseudonym of Roger Sherman Hoar)
Date first posted: Dec. 22, 2017
Date last updated: Dec. 22, 2017
Faded Page eBook #20171236

This eBook was produced by: Stephen Hutcheson
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

_High Adventure and Strange Romance on a World of Mystery_

When Myles Cabot accidentally transmitted himself to the planet Venus,
he found himself naked and bewildered on a mystery world where every
unguarded minute might mean a horrible death.

Man-eating plants, tiger-sized spiders, and dictatorial ant-men kept
Myles on the run until he discovered the secret of the land—that
humanity was a slave-race and that the monster ants were the real rulers
of the world!

But Cabot was resourceful, and when his new found love, the Kewpie-doll
princess Lilla, called for help, the ant-men learned what an angry
Earthman can do.

AN EARTHMAN ON VENUS is a science-fiction adventure packed with the
excitement of an Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the science-vision of an H.
G. Wells. You won’t be able to put it down once you start it.

AN
EARTHMAN
ON VENUS

{_Originally titled “THE RADIO MAN”_}

by
RALPH MILNE FARLEY

AVON PUBLISHING CO., INC.
119 West 57th Street, New York 19, N. Y.
_Published by Arrangement with the Author_

On the planet _VENUS_ you will meet—
_THIS EARTHMAN_

MYLES CABOT, a good-looking young Boston radio experimenter, who
accidentally broadcast himself bodily to another world.

_THESE GIANT ANTS_

QUEEN FORMIS, a twelve-foot-high monster, who ruled a world from an
egg-laying couch, and could conceive of no mercy for her human
slaves.
DOGGO, who became Myles Cabot’s friend through a curious accident and
who first showed Myles the ropes on that queer planet.
SATAN, who was given that name by Myles for the unpleasant reason that
he deserved it—and who lived up to it.

_THESE VENUSIAN PEOPLE_

PRINCESS LILLA, the lovely girl with the Kewpie wings, who held the
key to the throne of Venus and the key to Myles’ heart
simultaneously.
YURI, the suave scoundrel who wouldn’t hesitate to sell out his whole
race to get Lilla’s hand by force.
TORON, who tipped Myles off to Lilla’s private intentions in order to
save himself from slavery.
BTHUH, the beautiful lady who conspired to win Myles for herself,
though she had to help his deadliest enemies to do it.

[Illustration: COMPLETE AND UNABRIDGED: This AVON book contains the
entire text as published in the original edition.]

The Radio Man. Copyright, 1924 and 1939, by Frank A. Munsey Company.
Copyright, 1948, by Ralph Milne Farley.

_Avon Reprint Edition_

An Earthman on Venus. Copyright, 1950, by Avon Publishing Co., Inc.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

contents

1 The Message in the Meteor 3
2 Stranded in Space 8
3 Out of the Frying Pan 16
4 Go to the Ant, Thou Sluggard 22
5 A Vision 30
6 Radio Plays its Part 37
7 A Hunting Trip 48
8 The Conspiracy 56
9 The Rescue 63
10 Before Queen Formis 73
11 The Valley of the Shadow of Death 81
12 A Victim of Yuri 89
13 Kidnaped 96
14 In Disgrace 104
15 A New Game 110
16 Cabot Tells the World 119

_1_
the message in the meteor

Never had I been so frightened in all my life! It was a warm evening
late in August, and I was sitting on the kitchen steps of my
Chappaquiddick Island farmhouse, discussing the drought with one of the
farm hands. Suddenly there appeared in the sky over our heads a flaming
fiery mass, rushing straight downward toward us.

“Here’s where a shooting star gets me,” I thought, as I instinctively
ducked my head, just as though such a feeble move as ducking one’s head
could afford any possible protection from the flaming terror. The next
instant there came a dull crash, followed by silence, which in turn was
broken by the hired man dryly remarking: “I reckon she struck over to
Cow Hill.” Cow Hill was the slight elevation just back of our farmhouse.

So the meteor hadn’t been aimed exactly at _me_, after all.

If that thing had hit me, some one else would be giving to the world
this story.

We did nothing further about the meteor that night, being pretty well
shaken up by the occurrence. But next morning, as soon as the chores
were done, the hired man and I hastened to the top of Cow Hill to look
for signs of last night’s fiery visitor.

And, sure enough, there were plenty of signs. Every spear of grass was
singed from the top of the hill; the big rock on the summit showed marks
of a collision; and several splinters of some black igneous material
were lying strewed around. Leading from the big rock there ran down the
steep side of the hill a gradually deepening furrow, ending in a sort of
caved-in hole.

We could not let slip such a good opportunity to get some newspaper
publicity for our farm. And so on the following Friday a full account of
the meteoric visitation appeared in the _Vineyard Gazette_, with the
result that quite a number of summer folks walked across the island from
the bathing beach to look at the hole.