If you remember what the story was called I would love to find out. That sounds like a great plot :)

I've been slowly reading a pile of old (like 1950's and 1960's) pulp sci-fi I got from someone years ago. Some has been good and some has been terrible.

The most amusing part is several of the books have had cigarette ads inserted into the binding in the middle of the book. You don't see that these days!