C M Kornbluth's "The Rocket of 1955" (as by Cecil Corwin) (flash fiction, free): Swindlers get their due

Fein has enlisted the narrator & some others to spin a swindling racket - they'll build a rocket to go to Mars with a man. Idea is to raise money from all sorts of sources for the project, but the project will be a fake one.

During the scheduled rocket launch, the rocket will explode a little up in air - killing pilot & some others (as planned!) Only the fate will soon catch up with the swindlers...

Fact sheet.

First published: Escape, August 1939.
Download full text from this unnamed site [via Free SF Reader].
Download full text as part of the scans of Worlds Beyond, February 1951 where it was reprinted.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of C M Kornbluth.