Hard Guy by Howard Browne
"Hard Guy" by H. B. Carleton is a short science fiction story that was first published in "Amazing Stories" in the early 1940s. The narrative follows a chance encounter between a salesman named Frederick Marden and a hitch-hiker, who reveals himself to be part of a gang known as the Strato Rovers, involved in activities that blend heroism and crime. The story explores themes of appearance versus reality and the nature of
moral ambiguity in a futuristic setting. The plot centers around Marden's seemingly mundane act of picking up a hitch-hiker, Mike Eagen. As they travel, the conversation reveals Eagen's involvement with the Strato Rovers, a group that claims to target only criminals, likening themselves to modern-day Robin Hoods. They are on a mission to stop a dangerous figure known as the Black Hornet, who is plotting to sabotage a government ammunition facility. The story culminates in a playful twist, as it is revealed that Eagen is actually an eleven-year-old boy, providing a humorous commentary on the exaggerated nature of his claims and the innocence of youth amidst serious undertones of crime and moral choices. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read now or download (free!)
| Choose how to read this book | Url | Size | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read online (web) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.html.images | 31 kB | ||||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.epub3.images | 115 kB | ||||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.epub.images | 114 kB | ||||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.epub.noimages | 69 kB | ||||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.kf8.images | 227 kB | ||||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.kindle.images | 220 kB | ||||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26855.txt.utf-8 | 25 kB | ||||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26855/pg26855-h.zip | 113 kB | ||||
| There may be more files related to this item. | ||||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Browne, Howard, 1907-1999 |
|---|---|
| Title | Hard Guy |
| Note | Produced from Amazing Stories April 1956 and was first published in Amazing Stories November 1942. |
| Note | Reading ease score: 87.0 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 26855 |
| Release Date | Oct 9, 2008 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 146 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |
