The Raid on the Termites: Science Fiction Lengend
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The Challenge of the Mound
It was a curious, somehow weird-looking thing, that mound. About a yard in height and three and a half in diameter, it squatted in the grassy grove next the clump of trees like an enormous, inverted soup plate. Here and there tufts of grass waved on it, of a richer, deeper color, testifying to the unwholesome fertility of the crumbling outer stuff that had flaked from the solid mound walls.
Like an excrescence on the flank of Mother Earth herself, the mound loomed; like an unhealthy, cancerous growth. And inside the enigmatic thing was another world. A dark world, mysterious, horrible, peopled by blind and terrible demons--a world like a Dante's dream of a second Inferno.
Such, at least, were the thoughts of Dennis Braymer as he worked with delicate care at the task of sawing into the hard cement of a portion of the wall near the rounded top.
His eyes, dark brown and rimmed with thick black lashes, flashed earnestly behind his glasses as they concentrated on his difficult job. His face, lean and tanned, was a mask of seriousness. To him, obviously, this was a task of vital importance; a task worthy of all a man's ability of brain and logic.
Obviously also, his companion thought of the work as just something with which to fill an idle afternoon. He puffed at a pipe, and regarded the entomologist with a smile.
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About the author
Paul Frederick Ernst (born between 1899 and 1902 - died between 1983 and 1985[2]) was an American pulp fiction writer. He is best known as the author of the original 24 "Avenger" novels, published by Street & Smith under the house name Kenneth Robeson.
Paul Ernst was born between 1899 and 1902,:2 and "[took] up fiction writing in his early twenties." Credited by pulp-expert Don Hutchison as "a prolific manufacturer of potboilers-made-to-order," his stories appeared in a number of early Science fiction and fantasy magazines. His writing appeared in Astounding Stories, Strange Tales and Amazing, and he was the author of the Doctor Satan series which ran in Weird Tales from August, 1935. His most famous work was in writing the original 24 The Avenger stories in the eponymous magazine between 1939 and 1942.
When pulp magazine work began to dry up, Ernst "was able to make a painless transition into the more prestigious "slick" magazines, where his word skill earned him higher financial rewards." As of 1971, he was "still active as a writer," including penning "Blackout" for the July, 1971 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.
