"Now in 2710, as you'd know if you studied your history, the three
planets of Earth, Venus, and Mars were under governmental bondage. The
cruel dictatorship of Vennox I was short-lived, but it lasted long
enough to endanger all civilized life.
"The archives tell us that one of the first acts of the overthrowing
government was to cast out all Green Flames, two of which Vennox had
ordered must be kept in each household. The effect on the people was
immediate. Representative government, individual enterprise, freedom
followed."
Grannie Annie lit a cigarette and flipped the match to the floor.
"To go back to my first trip to Venus. As I said, I met Ezra Karn, an
old prospector there in the marsh. Karn told me that on one of his
travels into the Varsoom district he had come upon the wreckage of
an old space ship. The hold of that space ship was packed with Green
Flames!"
If Grannie expected me to show surprise at that, she was disappointed.
I said, "So what?"
"So everything, Billy-boy. Do you realize what such a thing would mean
if it were true? Green Flames were supposedly destroyed on all planets
after the Vennox regime crashed. If a quantity of the rock were in
existence, and it fell into the wrong hands, there'd be trouble.
"Of course, I regarded Karn's story as a wild dream, but it made
corking good story material. I wrote it into a novel, and a week after
it was completed, the manuscript was stolen from my study back on
Earth."
"I see," I said as she lapsed into silence. "And now you've come to the
conclusion that the details of your story were true and that someone is
attempting to put your plot into action."