DARK PIPER. By Andre Norton, Jack Gaughan (Illustrator), Ace Publishing Corporation, New York, 1968.
 
Science Fiction
Ace #13795
Vintage from the 1960s
 
A group of children fight their way to safety after an alien invasion. Returning home after ten years, Griss Lugard found Beltane relatively untouched by the annihilating war of the Four Sectors, her inhabitants still immersed in the biological researches on mutation for which the planet had been designated. Only Vere Collis and his nine young friends believed in Lugard and, drawn by his magnetism and his promises of exploring unknown desert caves, were safe underground when a series of explosions rocked Beltane, killing Lugard and sealing them in. In the days that followed, the small group battled fear and despair, as well as enemies more tangible, until they won their way to the surface, there to receive a shattering blow: all other human inhabitants on Beltane had perished. Only strange and possibly hostile mutant creatures remained.
 
Nice condition with light cover edgewear and some surface creases to the rear cover. Cover shows a purple man blowing on a pipe with a green creature behind. Softcover book with 220 pages.