A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, October 1950 — page 117: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

114 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY He dropped his voice, intimately, ear- nestly. a “Please help me, fellows. You know that my methods have been—well, say off- trail: Now, when we stand in the shadow of death, I’ see that I owe a debt to man- kind. Before I die”—his voice throbbed —*“will you help me pay it, fellows?” ‘ “We'll stand by you, doc.” The doctor shook his hand. The crooner couldn't ‘speak. The Special Planeteers saluted grimly. They scattered to their posts, and Vera Frame inquired: *Doctor, what is your plan?” ‘““The telecaster,” whispered Dr. Buff. “Of course they'll attack when we try it. But it’s the only possible weapon left. If Scarr could use TAU to conquer Earth —then we can use it to conquer him {” The throb was getting louder in his ears. It had an anvil’s metal ring. Vera would have screamed and recoiled from him, if she had known. But she helped him, with her lithe and splendid strength, into the elevator. To a string band’s melancholy accom- paniment, in the main studio, a large bo- vine woman was lowing out the unhappy words of “Barbara Allen.” Dr. Bull's customers were people who liked homey, oldtime music. And it was a tradition that TAU had never lost a precious minute off the air, not even during the disorder of Scarr’s previous raid. Dr. Bull burst through the sound proof door. He bowled the songstress from be- fore the mikes, gestured to sifence the fiddler, nodded at the mike-man and the sound mixer. “Hello, all the planets!” Racing against time, against the im- pact of rocket-shells against. the tower, perhaps aganist even the final devastation of a salvo from the Valiant’s great rifles— 1f they could be fired from the disabled cruiser—his voice was hoarse § and strained : “This is Dr. Bull of Taurus. Attention all patrol ships and bases, afl government and police officials on Earth! A murder- ous uprising is now being attempted by the Iron Watch, a secret party headed by the pirate Iron Scarr and traitors in the Patrol. “I may be cut off in a few seconds. Al- ready the plotters have taken the Appen- ine Base and the Valiant. Taurus is at- tacked. We are surrounded, in TAU. Un- til they silence me, here are the detatis.” Shy THAT insulated room, no crash of guns or shriek of pain was audible. But the whole room shuddered, and Dr. Bufl knew that a rocket-shefl had burst against the butiding. He gutped and hur- ried on: “Commander Batson was the chief traitor. The Moon Syndicate supported the {ron Watch with a billion dollars. Scarr’s men on Earth are prepared to spread the Mercurian lightning death.” The air shuddered again. The double giass wall abruptly crumbled, fell in a crashing avalanche. Abruptly the purr of pellet-guns was audible, and the rapid bark of auto-rifles. “Listen!” shouted Dr. Bull. “You can hear the fighting—they’re storming the tower. [’ll talk as long as I can. Phone your friends to tune in TAU. Warn al! government and police agencies—” Then the studio was plunged into total darkness. There was an instant of breath- fess silence, then every battle-sound seemed amplified. Somewhere a man bummed with an ion-beam was screaming with a thin and frightful monotony. “Tt’s the power, doctor,” gasped the mike-man. ‘‘They’ve cut the line from the central station.” “We've got auxiliary power tubes in the basement,” Dr. Bull reminded him. “Why don’t they come on?” The tower rocked to another crushing blast. A single shot interrupted the brief pause that followed, and the screaming (C(O) nn) (C 6)(0)©) Ss (C(O) im