Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 250: what you’re looking at

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

Craig’s laugh exploded in the room. “But | could always beat him before,” the old man insisted. “Il even let him beat me every so often to keep him interested, so he would play with me. And tonight | was all set to take him to a cleaning—” Creepy’s face twisted, his moustache quivering. “And that ain’t all, by cracky. | felt, somehow, that Knut had changed and—” Craig walked close to the old man, grasped him by the Shoulder. “I know,” he said. “I Know just how you felt.” Again he was remembering how the hair had crawled upon his Skull as he talked to Knut just a while ago. Creepy nodded, pale eyes blinking, Adam’s apple bobbing. Craig spun on his heel, snatched up his shirt, Started peeling off his pyjama coat. “Creepy,” he rasped, “you go down to that control room. Get a gun and lock yourself in. Stay there until | get back. And don’t let anyone come in!” He fixed the old man with a stare. “You understand. Don’t let anyone get in! Use your gun if you are forced to use it but see no one touches those controls!” Creepy’s eyes bugged and he gulped. “Is there going to be trouble?” he quavered. “| don’t know,” snapped Craig, but I’m going to find out.” Down in the garage, Craig stared angrily at the empty Stall. Page’s jumper was gone! Grumbling with rage, Craig walked to the oxygen-tank rack. The lock was undamaged, and he inserted the key. The top snapped up and revealed the tanks—all of them, nestling in rows, still attached to the recharger lines. Almost unbelieving, Craig stood there, looking at the tanks. All of them were there. That meant Page had started out in the jumper with insufficient oxygen. It meant the man CORniclooo SS CO