American Science Fiction #41 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

34 | THE FINAL FIGURE | Chae nN a ne oe eR there had been no report of trouble | .-:. Hold on, there was something: in the morning paper... The General made it in less than- two hours. Angus MacReedy had been shot in the back of his head the previous evening, while building mode! soldiers in his cellar workroom. A boy who lived next door, and heard the shot while on his way to pay MacReedy a visit, had seen the mur- derer drive away in a black sedan. He had given the alarm and local constabulary had picked up the trail and given chase. Ignoring a red light, their quarry had been killed when his sedan was hit by a truck. He had no identification on 2im-.but appeared to be a stocky blond man of about forty.- An alien pistol, recently discharged. had been found in the wreckage. _ The General cnd Toby stood alone in the strangely empty workroom. Only an ugly, dark staim on the floor ‘ remained to mark the recent violence that had occurred there. The General looked at the table, then at the boy. He’ said, “Toby, do you know what your Uncle Angus was working on re- cently?” He felt a little ashamed thus to try to pick the brains of a mur- dered man through a child. “He’d been pretty busy with orders from the shop,” said Toby thought- fully. “And he’d just ,finished that.” He nodded t6éward an unpainted lead miniature on the work-table. ‘The General looked at it closely, and felt the blood drain from his face: He had told MacReedy to try to work out the next weapon after the guided- _ missile launcher... “Are you sick, General?” Toby 4 THE END oN - Z Printed im Australia by Mentmore Press, Sas Published by Malian Press Pty. If the name of any living person is used, tt.is a 3 evita 49-59 Mentmore Avenue, Rosebery, Sydmey. Limited, 29 Bligh Street, Sydmey, asked, breathing in on his abstraction, = “You mustn't take it so hard; sir.” 9) +) “’’m—all right, Toby,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a shock, that’s all.” “It’s been horrible,” said Toby, his voice quite steady. “Uncle Angus was a great man. I’ll never be able to be as great.” TA “You'll never know till you try,” said the General. He thought that — They had not forgotten—They had killed: him for losing Them Their war, lt was up to him, the General, to see that during his lifetime the peace was kept, to help set up some sort of or- sei ganisation that would keep the peace when he was gone. : “Will it be okay for me to take ~ this?” Toby had picked up the final figure, and was regarding it reverently. — “What? Oh, I don’t see why not.” — He said goodbye to the boy outside be and got into his car for the drive back _ to the airfield. dence, he didn’t see Toby carry the unpainted figure the hundred yards to his house, didn’t see Toby place it. carefully at the end Ob 4 a row of gay little figures that includ- ed Napoleon, Marlborough, Suleiman the Great, Charles XII of Sweden, | Henry V, Tamerlaine, Genghis Khan, Charles Martel, Julius Caesar—and © newer, or perhaps older, figurines of Alexander the Great, Xerxes, Cyrus the Great, Nebuchadnezzar and a trio of even more primitive conquerors. “Gee,” said Toby to himself, “I’m — sorry Uncle Angus had ‘to be killed, But if he had to be killed, I’m glad he got my historical set just about fin- pres I can paint this cave-man my- self.” i A few minutes later his mother called him to supper. es coincidence. comicbooks. corr - AP hs Agee eS PY Cortereieier ite).