One Prehistoric Night by Philip Barshofsky from WONDER STORIES, November 1934 Sometimes in sf a writer will appear with a captivating story, and readers will wait impatiently for his next attempt to see if he can possibly beat his maiden tale. And yet one more story would eventually appear and then nothing. The author would disappear into oblivion. Such occurrences are common, and are often puzzling. Philip Barshofsky was such a case. “One Prehistoric Night” marked his debut and caught the cover of the November 1934 Wonder Stories. It was overshadowed in that issue by the appearance of Stanley G. Weinbaum’s “The Valley of Dreams”, his sequel to “A Martian Odyssey”. But even with that competition, Barshofsky’s story received much favourable comment And yet the name Barshofsky only appeared once again, in the last Gernsback Wonder Stories, in March 1936 with “The Imperfect Guess”, a humorous story satirizing sf writers. An amusing tale but not memorable. One assumption could be that Barshofsky was a pen name for a better known author. It was later discovered that whoever had written the Barshofsky stories had also written stories under the name of Philip Jacques Bartel. Bartel had appeared for the first time in that same November 1934 Wonder Stories with the intriguing “Twenty Five Centuries Late”, and had had several other stories in both Wonder and Amazing. But who was the real author? When it was finally revealed that the man behind the pseudonyms was a certain M. M. Kaplan, many shoulders were shrugged. Kaplan is definitely the mystery man of this collection. As Bartel he would last appear in the first issue of Hornig’s Future Fiction in November 1939 with “The Infinite Eye”, and since then nothing. Such mysteries are what make science fiction fascinating. Who was M. M. Kaplan? What made him choose such Muscovian and Gallic pen names? Did he write other sf under even more obscure pseudonyms? I hope to find answers to these questions one day. In the meantime we have stories like “One Prehistoric Night” to remember him by. * * * * With a reverberating roar, a huge torpedo-shaped body leaped up out of the dim steam-laden horizon and came rushing towards a large and rugged island, followed by a fiery tail and leaving behind a trail of falling sparks. The piercing rays of the noonday sun picked up bright reflections from the surface of the hurtling metal monster. They also showed that the strange visitor bore orange and green markings. The noisy arrival had four rounded, metal “fins” that made it appear like some great arrow afire. The fins all began at the blunt prow ending in a slope against the side of the craft, and appeared to be used as observatories with perfectly transparent ends. The rear part of the rocket-ship sprouted many propulsion tubes. These now rocked the quiet waters with a thunderous concussion. From the center of the blunt nose and the under and side parts, there also extended short tubes to be used in maneuvering the space craft. The island, its destination, which was surrounded by almost a world of water, (being about the only piece of habitable land on the planet) bore gigantic growths that towered toward the large, blazing red sun. Its surface shook to the heavy footfalls of frightfully crude creatures, that seemed to be some grim experiment of Nature. Amid heartbeats of thunderous noises, the rocket-ship shot down toward the foliage-covered ground and skimmed over the green tops. Upon reaching an open space where trees and ferns had surrendered the ground to a wide patch of sand, it landed in a burst of fire that somewhat softened its earthward plunge. At the immediate silence of the ship’s propulsion tubes, other noises quickly became perceptible. Strange noises that having been drowned out at the ship’s arrival, now rose vigorously into the humid air. From far and near came the hissing and shrieking of monstrous reptiles—reptiles that infested and reigned supreme on this world millions of years ago. Millions of years ago, in the Jurassic period, they lived—a span of years which took up about six per cent of the life of the earth. The heavy landing of the space-ship shook the ground, and before long a group of tall trees hid the approach of an inquisitive allosaurus, that behind the outermost fringe of trees came to rest. With its comparatively small but strong forelegs, which rarely, if ever touched the earth, it grasped a tall, thin tree to balance itself, while it gazed hesitantly upon this strange being. The reptile carnivore seemed to pay not the slightest notice to a large rent in its side, from which blood freely flowed. Now and then it turned its head sidewise like a bird to eye the uneven ground, as if it awaited the earth to betray, by its involuntary tremors, the approach of some creature that the cold-blooded reptile could better understand than that large egg-like thing. Overhead a shrilling archaeopteryx, partly hidden by the fogs that rose from the warm earth, attracted the momentary gaze of the huge sentinel. Not knowing whether to brave the sudden terrific heat, which the fires of the rocket-ship had created, or to abandon the glittering, quiet thing before it and hunt elsewhere, the monster stood for a moment perplexed. Suddenly, in its dilemma, the hungry allosaurus felt the ground vibrate to the dancing feet of some prehistoric combatants that fought for life and food. That signal decided the question. Instantly the short-witted reptile forgot the metal arrival as it turned and made off in the directions of the battle. A sole breeze wafted to its nostrils the enticing odor of blood that had already been carelessly spilt. With its powerful hind legs, which were almost as long as its body, allosaurus leaped in tremendous bounds, covering ground with amazing speed as a frothy, white foam fell from its long, hissing jaws. Already the dying screams of one of the combatants pierced the air. The ground heaved and trembled as from all over creatures hurried toward the scene of the battle. Soon the foggy air was filled with the shrilling and screaming of the hungry monsters of an infant planet. Animals mostly of a smaller type crowded and soon filled a small clearing that was made by the careless fighters in their efforts. Many small individuals were crushed to death beneath the ponderous feet of their larger brothers in the rush for food, and provided another mouthful or so. Here an angry reptile tore into bits a small scavenger that stole a piece of meat from its possession, and in doing so added to its meal. From above, powerful jaws snapped off its head in turn. Thus more meat was provided. Usually the smaller creatures grabbed a bit of meat and dashed off with it, fearful of losing it to some larger animal while the larger creatures remained, surer of their ground. As the noises increased in volume, hungry mouths fed and empty bellies became filled. * * * * Slowly the blood-red sun set, leaving the steaming forests solely in the possession of the noisy dinosaurs that were the inhabitants. The metal alien lay beneath the subdued glare of the stately moon. With the parting of day, a round door, close to the ground, slid aside and an amazingly small creature stepped out, the door closing immediately behind it The four-foot arrival, without any noticeable form of physical defence, could hardly have been any more than a mouthful for any of the giant preying carnivora. An orange skull-cap covered a large head from two beady eyes set under a high forehead, to the back of a short, thick neck. Two pairs of arms and one pair of legs betrayed the fact that this creature had probably evolved from some six-legged creation. A thin green metal tunic covered the remainder of the short body. From a thick black belt, two blunt hooks supported a like number of small, round tubes, and one of the thin arms always hung near them. The little being seemed ready for any form of attack as its watchfulness plainly showed. The strange creature whistled a few notes which, explained, would read as, “Come out It is cooler than when the sun shone.” As the door again opened, another and a third of the like species stepped out slowly, hesitantly. They formed a silent group not far from the space-craft, while they gazed up at the planet Mars hanging like a crimson jewel in the sky. One began to whistle, he who had first stepped forth from the ship. “Our mother planet. See how she looks at us with a burning eye.” “From here we cannot see the misery on the faces of our people,” answered he who had first stepped out after the whistle. “Yet,” the first one whistled, “that bright world will soon be uninhabitable and might have been the death of our race had we not discovered this more habitable world. “Our scientists were right when they explained that this planet wouldn’t be too hot for us; and everyone thought we should roast here. Its daylight cannot be much hotter than its night, so as far as heat is concerned, this planet will suit us.” A silence reigned, pierced by reptilic yells from the outside, to which these creatures paid no attention. Each was enveloped in his own thoughts—tremendous thoughts. A world was dying and a desperate race sought a more habitable place, one where their lives would not be endangered. Now a suitable planet was discovered, one that would safely harbor their race. But what form of life existed on this planet? In a happy frame of mind, the third creature whistled a series of short notes. “The atmosphere is pure and innocent in composition here, free from any form of contami...
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