Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

116 JOHN WYNDHAM “Yes. But it didn’t mean anything, except that there were two of it, and a lot of water,” said Petra, obscurely, and in words. “She doesn’t understand where I am, either I have tried to tell her we are at Waknuk in Labrador.” “Tell her to spell in letter-shapes,”” suggested Rosalind. “But I can’t read letters,’’ Petra objected tearfully. ** Oh dear,” said Rosalind. ‘“‘ But at least we can send. If I give you the letter-shapes one by one, you can think them to her How about that?’ Doubtfully, Petra agreed to try Rosalind pictured an L. Petra relayed it with devastating force. Rosalind followed with an A, and so on until the word was complete. Then Petra told us, ‘‘ She understands, but she doesn’t know where Labrador is. She says she’ll try to find out. She wants tosend me her letter-shapes, but I told her it’s no good.” ““ But it is, darling. You get her letter-shapes, then you let us have them—only gently, so that we can read them.” Presently we got the first one. It was Z. We were disappointed. ““ She’s got it back to front. It must be S,’’ Michael decided. We built up the rest of the word. ‘Well, the others are proper letters,’’ Michael admitted. ‘‘ SEALAND—iIt must—” All was blotted out by Petra conversing indignantly with the unknown. She finished this with the triumphant announcement: “ It7s Z. She says it’s different from S: like the noise a bee makes.”’ ** All right,’’ said Michael. ‘‘ But ask her if there is a lot of sea there.” Petra came back shortly with, ‘“‘ Yes. There’s sea all round. And from where she is now you can see the sun shining on it for miles and miles and it’s all blue—”’ “She’s crazy,” objected Michael. ‘‘ It’s the middle of the night.”’ “It isn’t where she is,” said Petra. ‘‘ And there are lots and lots of houses, different from Waknuk, and much, much bigger, and there are funny things running along the road, without horses. And things in the air with whizzing things on top of them—”’ “Sort of fish-shaped things, Petra? ’”’ I asked, with a sudden feeling of excitement. “Yes,” she agreed. The more she told me, the more excited 1 became. Almost everything fitted in with the dreams I used to have when I was small. It was like a sudden inspiration to realize that all this existed now somewhere in the world, and it was not simply the ways of the Old People that I had been dreaming about. However, Petra was tired, and it would keep, so presently she and Rosalind lay down to sleep. Just after the sun had risen Michael came through in some agitation. ‘‘ They’ve picked up your trail, David. That man Rosalind shot. His dog found him, and then they found the greathorse tracks. Our lot is turning back to the south-west to join the hunt. You’d better push on. Where are you now? ” > > comiclooks.conn