Mystery in Space # 44Mystery in Space # 44

June-July, 1958

Riddle of the Glowing Space-Cabby

Writer: Otto Binder

Penciller: Bernard Sachs

Inker: Bernard Sachs

Synopsis: Space Cabby is cruising for fares when his tooth, which he'd recently had filled, stars hurting. He goes to see his dentist, but as soon as he leaves the cab, he glows and feels dizzy, a condition that disappears as soon as he gets back into the cab. The same thing happens later when he stops for a drink. Thinking that Earth's air must have some sort of contaminant in it, he goes to Mars to see if he's affected similarly, and he is, and the same thing occurs when he steps out of the cab wearing a space suit. Over the course of the next day, he is forced to live with the discomfort of sleeping in his cab, eating only at drive-in restaurants, being unable to grab a thousand-credit bill he sees outside, and being without shelter from storms. After a week of this condition, he notices that living in his cab is resulting in his earning plenty of money. Then he takes on a passenger who ends up robbing him, knowing that Space Cabby can't leave the cab to chase him when he runs away. As Space Cabby tries to think of how to thwart the robber, his toothache acts up again. The robber runs out of the cab, and Space Cabby chases and catches him with no ill effect. When the robber questions what had happened, Space Cabby tells him that he realized that his tooth was filled with amalgam, which is partially mercury, and that the mercury-vapor lamp in his cab had been on the fritz, and connected the two, figuring that somehow the mercury vapor lamp caused the mercury in his tooth to react every time he opened the cab door and it went on. He had solved the problem by taking out the lamp bulb. After handing the crook to the police, visiting his dentist again and replacing the defective lamp, he ironically discovers that his cab's door is jammed and he can't get in.


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