Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

THE CHRYSALIDS 105 was just bad luck his seeing us; and of course he wondered why we were going at a gallop. He seemed very suspicious.” “Why?” asked Rosalind. ‘“‘ Does he know anything about thought-shapes? I didn’t think any of them had the slightest suspicion ...” ‘** T don’t know,” Sally said. ‘‘ But he can’t make them himself, or receive them. I tried him hard.” Michael’s distinctive pattern came in, inquiring what it was all about. We explained. He told us, ‘‘ They have an idea that there may be something of the kind—but only a very rough idea—a sort of emotional transference of thought. They call it telepathy— at least, those who believe in it do, though they aren’t all sure that it even exists.” “Do they think it’s deviational? ” I asked. ‘It’s difficult to say. I’m not sure that the question has ever been put bluntly. Academically, though, there is the point that since God is able to read men’s minds, the true image ought to be able to do the same. It could be argued that it is a power that men have temporarily lost as a punishment, part of Tribulation. If that’s what he thinks, we’d all have quite a case.” “* What about the rest? ’’ Rosalind asked. “‘ Does anybody seem suspicious? ”’ She got four noes to that. ““Good. 'Then you four are out of it; the rest of us will have to be wary. David must talk to Petra in words, and try to teach her some control of her thought-power. If this distress of hers occurs again you must all ignore it, and leave it to David and me. If it is compulsive, the way it was the first time, and compels us to go to her, whoever reaches her first will have to try to make her unconscious, and the moment the compulsion breaks, you must turn back and do your best to cover up. Whatever happens, we must see that we aren’t drawn together into a group again. It is very dangerous and certain to cause suspicion. Does everybody understand and agree? ”’ Their assents came in. Then the rest of them withdrew, leaving Rosalind and me to discuss how best I could tackle Petra. I woke early the next morning, and the cause of my waking was Petra’s renewed distress over the loss of her pony. Luckily, it did not have anything like the intensity of the previous day. I tried to make contact with her, and though she did not understand, there was a perceptible check for some seconds. I got up and went along to her room. She was glad to see me, and the distress- pattern eased off a lot while we chatted. Before I left, I promised to take her fishing that afternoon. It is not easy to explain in words how to make intelligible thought-shapes. All of us, had found out for ourselves; at first fumblingly, but gradually we developed greater power as we dis- covered and learnt from one another. With Petra it was different: already at six years old, she had a strength of projection that was overwhelming in its effect, and she had no idea how to control it. comiclooks.conn