# Dr. Stephen Halday — Short Fiction character guide

> Dr. Stephen Halday in Short Fiction by Frank Belknap Long.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Steve, Captain Stephen Claymore

**First appearance:** 0000-the-hounds-of-tindalos

## Snapshot

A stouthearted captain who can laugh at gold and diamonds but falls helplessly in love with a woman's image, and will fight a wall of guns to keep her mirror.

## Who they are

Known to his buddy Tom as Captain Stephen Claymore, Steve is the kind of man who could let diamonds trickle through his fingers in contempt—yet a beautiful woman is a temptation apart, and he has fixed his heart on an image he can never hold. When rival prospectors close in on the mirror that carries her likeness, he trades shots from behind a crumbling wall, takes a bullet in the shoulder, and refuses to bury the thing face down. His compulsion is the story's engine: a hero's courage undone by a love that can kill.

## In the story

### [The Hounds of Tindalos](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_17_se/chapters/the-hounds-of-tindalos)

The protagonist who investigates the strange phenomena and becomes the target of the Hounds.

### [The Sky Trap](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_17_se/chapters/the-sky-trap)

The scientist whose experiments may have created the bubbles; he observes the phenomenon from his lab with unease.

### [Lake of Fire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_17_se/chapters/lake-of-fire)

Discovers the Martian mirror and becomes obsessed with the image of Azala; wounded in a gunfight.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_17_se/characters/dr_stephen_halday
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_17_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_17_se/characters