Comment: A “twilight zone” short story.

Quotes:

“My partner, Andy Seguilo, disappeared vanished into nowhere; I’m alone out here.”
Superintendent Flint looked shocked. “Disappeared? What happened? Did he fall into the ocean?”

Republished in Golden Girl and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

Comment:

Several sources state that this story was first published in “Malcolm’s Mystery Magazine,” March 1954, under the pseudonym John Van See. However, Foreverness seems to think the pseudonym J. A. Kavnnes was used. Maybe the author proposed J. A. Kavnnes and the publisher choose John Van See instead.

Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight 2012.

From Wikipedia: “The Houses of Iszm is a science fiction novella by Jack Vance, which appeared in Startling Stories magazine in 1954. It was reissued in book form in 1964 as part of an Ace Double novel, together with Vance’s Son of the Tree . The story published in Startling Stories is about 22,000 words while the version that appears in the Ace Double still less than novel length at about 30,000 words. The Houses of Iszm was re-published as a stand-alone volume in 1974 by Mayflower. ” (more on Wikipedia)

Republished by Spatterlight in 2012.