A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, October 1950 — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

RACKETHERS IN THE SKY man was silent. The darkness smothered Dr. Bull. He backed toward a corner of the studio, croaking: _ “The lights—somebody fix the lights!” He was afraid of the dark. The last traitor might strike beneath it. The enemy without might find entrance. The anvil of death rang fouder in his brain. Every measured blow sent out sparks of fiery But he remembered that it was still day, outside the steel-shuttered building. The sounds of fighting ebbed, as if the attack- ers were waiting again for night. Flash- lights began to cut nervous white cones from the black confusion in the studio. Dr. Bull flinched from a fight in his face. “Doctor!” It was a harassed power engineer. “The auxiliaries failed to come on because they were burned out. Sabo- tage. We're replacing them with spares. It will take an hour.” “Hurry, man—hurry!” Dr. Bull’s voice was faint and dry. He sat down in the program-director’s fold- ing chair. The dark room was rocking. The flickering lights spun in sickening spirals. The throb in his head was the crashing fall of a giant’s feet, pursuing his desperate flight through darkness. He felt the presence of Vera Frame be- side him, dragged htmself out of that chasm of vertiginous misery to face stark reality. Her flashlight showed him a black- inked teleprinter ribbon, looped in her fingers. “Victory, doctor!’ From the tone of her voice, he knew she should have said Defeat. She held the light for him to read. He saw that the message was from the firm of Wells and Watter- son, the New York attorneys who had served him brilliantly as the unofficial di- plomatic corps of Taurus. The world shuddered and spun, as he read: DR. BULL, PLANET TAURUS. ADVISE YOU STOP BOGEYMAN 115 TELECAST AT ONCE. HAVE WARNED YOU BEFORE EXCES- SIVELY SENSATIONAL. AND FALSE NEWS BULLETINS EN- DANGER ALL OUR EFFORTS BE- HALF CONTINUED GOOD INTER- PLANETARY RELATIONS OF IN- DEPENDENT TAURUS. SUN PATROL INCENSED AT YOUR INSANE ACCUSATIONS. DANGER COMMANDER. BATSON WILL TAKE MATTERS INTO OWN HANDS AND ACTUALLY ORDER VALIANT TO BRING YOU TO YOUR SENSES. BELIEVE US DR. BULL YOU HAVE USED THIS PUBLICITY TRICK TOO OFTEN. NO RESPONSIBLE —INTELLI- GENT PERSON PAYS SERIOUS ATTENTION TO TAU. NO OBJECT CREATING PANIC AMONG IG- NORANT AND MISINFORMED. OUR ASSOCIATION WITH YOU HAS BEEN PROFITABLE. HOW- EVER IF THIS TELECAST IS NOT INSTANTLY STOPPED AND UN- TRUTHS CORRECTED OUR CON- NECTION MUST END. CHAPTER 5 A Fight to Death R. BULL’S hands were stiff and cold. The damp tape slipped out of them, and fluttered down into the dark- ness. The throbbing in his brain became a mocking voice that chanted: “Wolf boy ... wolf boy... boy...” It was true that the news policy of TAU had always been that sensational interest and tremendous signal power would make up for any possible lack of accuracy. TAU never made corrections, and denials made through other media seldom reached most of its audience. Dr. Bull looked back with a sudden and wolf ECOMICLOO|S (C(O) im