Beachcomber in Space, Part 3

 

cover art by Rod Ruth

Read/Watch 'em In Order #161

Well, actually, Ebbtide Jones isn't in space anymore. Nor is he any longer a simple businessman.

"Ebbtide Jones' Atom Constrictor," by Miles Shelton (Fantastic Adventures, August 1941) opens with Ebbtide and his now-wife Trixie back on Earth. Using the valuables he salvaged in space, Ebbtide now runs an international junk and salvage business.

His scientist friend Stan Kendrick still works for him. Stan's latest invention is a Atom Constrictor, a big vehicle that scoops up objects and reduces them to two dimensions, making it easier to transport or store them. The resultant discs are stored in an absolute zero container, reexpanding to normal size when taken out of that container and heated with electricity. When testing it on a trash can, Ebbtide, Trixe and Stan accidentally scoop up a cat as well, learning that a living being will reexpand without harm as well.

In the meantime, a master criminal known as "Cream Puff" is planning on robbing Ebbtide's time vault to rob it of valuable jewels. A henchman has taken a job in Ebbtide's building to help set this up.

What follows is a screwball comedy, with the atom constrictor adding a sci-fi element to the comedy formula. Ebbtide goes on a business trip, leaving Trixie in charge with instructions to essentially not do anything. Trixie, though, wants to set up a delivery service using the atom constrictor and impliments this idea as soon as Ebbtide is gone. Trixie, though, isn't very good at filing and soon gets the deliveries hopeless confused. A man expecting an airplane gets a bicylce. The man expecting the bicycle gets a giant crane that crashes through his roof when it expands to normal size. And so on.

This situation, naturally, becomes entwined with the theft storyline. One absurd moment follows another, leading to the crook's henchman getting scooped up by the atom constrictor and the crook's schemes being foiled. Along the way, Ebbtide and Trixie have a fight, but he still leaps to her defense when the cops briefly suspect she was involved in the theft and everyone (well, everyone but the crooks) has a happy ending.

My guess is that the story was at least partially influenced by the screwball comedy movies released in the 1930s. The humor, though never quite as sharp or clever as you'll find in (for instance) Bringing up Baby, is still funny. Ebbtide will return for just one more story and, to be honest, it's probably best he disappeared into Pulp Fiction Limbo before he wore out his welcome. But the stories he did provide have so far been worth reading.

You can read this one online HERE.