Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 254: what you’re looking at

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

Craig jerked the jumper to a halt, stared in amazement and horror through the filter shield. Then, the breath sobbing in his throat, he leaped from the seat, scrambled frantically for a space suit. Outside the car, he approached the dark shape huddled on the ground. Slowly he moved nearer, the hands of fear clutching at his heart. Beside the shape he stopped and looked down. Heat and radiation had gotten in their work, Shriveling, blasting, desiccating—but there could be no doubt. Staring up at him from where it lay was the dead face of Knut Anderson-= Craig straightened up and looked around. Candles danced upon the ridges, swirling and jostling, silent watchers of his grim discovery. The one lone blue Candle, bigger than the rest, had followed the machine into the hollow, was only a few rods away, rolling restlessly to and fro. Knut had said something was funny. He had shouted it, his voice raspy and battered by the screaming of powerful radiations. Or had that been Knut? Had Knut already died when that message came through? Craig glanced back at the sand, the blood pounding in his temples. Had the Candles been responsible for this? And if they were, why was he unmolested, with hundreds dancing on the ridge? And if this was Knut, with dead eyes Staring at the black of space, who was the other one—the one who came back? Candles masquerading as human beings? Was that possible? Mimics the Candles were—but hardly as good as that. There was always something wrong with their mimicry— something ludicrously wrong. CORniclooo SS (SO)