Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

Being an intense, brilliant man, capable of turning on bursts of concentration like arc-fights, also because he had no opportunity to speak anything else. Striker found himself in a few weeks able to get along in the language of these people. Written speech he mastered easily, fascinated by the curious mathematical relations of the dot-patterns that formed their alphabet. To his surprise, aS soon as he had assimilated enough of the knowledge of this world to form a conclusion, he found quite definitely that he was in no Utopia. The sneering accusations of the yellow press regarding his authenticity, the savage attacks by disgruntled anthropologists into whose custody he had been given, were very human indeed. But among his friends, quickly found, he discovered that Earthly virtues as well had not yet died. Baffled, he explained: “I thought that if man were still In existence he would be advanced enough to send me back to my own time.” He shrugged. “I gambled and lost.” His first friend, the old man, Prash-maun, who had taught him the language, grinned, his face falling naturally into the lines of mirth that characterized him. “Lost, Striker? You expected to find yourself in either a wilderness on the heels of which would come swift death, or in a perfect world in which man had subdued his surroundings. Neither of these iS so, but you are alive, though living on the bounty of friends.” Striker winced. Though it seemed to have no shameful connection among these people, he did not like the idea of charity. His life had been valuable in his own time. “I Know,” he said. “But tonight we were going exploring. Shall we Start?” “If you wish,” said Maun. “But from what you have told me of your day, you'll find little changed.” Striker did not believe the old man just then. Later, having wandered by foot and conveyance through the metropolis into whose harbor he had fallen, he understood. CORniclooo SS CO