Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 304: what you’re looking at

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

yy od “magicians in khaki,” “test-tube godlings,” seemed to have a right to awe. There were twenty-seven thousand of them Spread out amid a hundred and eighty-five trillion beings, things and men who held down the habitable spots of space, and a technician first class was, reputedly, never sent to duty unless everything was gone awry. Blufore had come ready to discard the flying rumors and bad opinions of this technician, for he knew that the technician’s presence was the Grand Council’s most scathing criticism of a military administrator. Blufore saw the ungainly hulk of Gedso lon Brown sprawled upon the bed. Blufore saw the apple and a core upon the floor. Blufore saw no test tubes or servant monsters. And when Blufore heard the mild, almost stuttering voice bid him, “Come in,” Blufore reacted as would any man experiencing the downfall of a god. Gedso looked nearsightedly at Blufore as the man sat down. Gedso did not like the swaggering, boasting expression on Blufores face or the precision of Blufore’s fancifully cut uniform. “I came to give you the data on this mess,” said Blufore. “But there’s nothing anybody can do which hasn't already been done. | Know because as a combat engineer I've tried every form of repelling force known without result on the ‘things.’ Now what do you want to know?” Gedso was not offended. He swung down his feet and cupped his chin and looked at Blufore. “Just what are these ‘things’?” “Monsters, maybe. Living tanks. Some of them weigh a hundred and fifty tons, some three hundred. Some have a front that is all bone mouth. Some have eighty to a hundred and twenty legs. Some are transparent. Some are armor- plated. There have been as many as five thousand dead before the wall, making a wall of their own, and the others CORniclooo SS (SO)