The Secret Sense

“The Secret Sense" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was written in 1939 and submitted to the magazine Astounding SF, but was rejected by its editor John W. Campbell, Jr.. It could not be placed by Asimov's agent, Frederik Pohl, and eventually it was taken for no payment by a new and short-lived magazine, Cosmic Stories in March 1941, although Asimov did ask for a token payment of $5 from the editor, Donald A. Wollheim, or else for the story to be published under a pseudonym, before the story was published. This was requested on the grounds that “even though the story might be worth nothing, my name was worth something”. Wollheim reluctantly agreed to a payment of $5, commenting that it was an effective word rate of $2.50 per word, since he was paying only for the use of Asimov's name. Asimov described the letter from Wollheim with the $5 payment as “needlessly nasty”. He later commented to Damon Knight that he might have just given Wollheim the $5 back in cash after receiving the check, but that the option never occurred to him at the time.
The story takes place against the background of an ancient and highly developed culture living in large underground cities on Mars.