Astounding British Edition, Vol. 6, No. 8 — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

et Ml a ’ 40 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION ing but he did not heed it. There was an amputator in here some place which would saw through diamonds with cold fire. He spilled three drawers, on the floor and in the blinding glitter of instruments finally located the tool. : It wasn’t possible to reach the trap with- out taking away the twisted ladder and for some minutes he scorched himself on the heated metal until he could cut it all away. Then it occurred to him that he would have no chance of getting Hippocates down if there was anything left of him, for that little fellow weighed five hundred kilos even if he was less than a meter tall. Ole Doc found rope and mattresses and then, standing on a chair, turned the cold fire on a corner of the trap He stopped abruptly for fear the excess jet would touch Hippocrates’ body on the other side and for a while stood frowning upward. Then he seized a thermometer from his pocket and began to apply it all over the steel above him. In a minute or two he had found a slightly higher temperature over an area which should compare with the little slave’s body and he chalked it off. Then, disre- garding the former lines of the trap, jetted . out five square feet of resistant metal as though it had been butter. The torch was entirely spent when he had but an inch to go but the lip had sagged from weight enough for him to pry down. A moment later he was crawling into the turret. Hippocrates lay curled into himself as though asleep. He was seared and blackened by the heat of the melting girder which had buckled and pinned him down. Ole Doc hurriedly put a heart counter against the slave’s side and then sagged with relief when he saw the needle beat- beat-beat in faint but regularly spaced rhythm. He stood up, feeling his own life surging back through him, and wrenched away the confining girder. Carefully, because he had never made any study of the slave’s anatomy—which anatomy had been the reason Ole Doc had- bought him at that auction God knew how many many scores of years ago, two cen- turies? three?— Ole Doc trussed the little fellow in a rope cradle and by steadying the standing part over a split jet barrel, began the weary task of lowering the enormous weight down to the mattresses below. It took a full twenty minutes to get Hip- pocrates on an operating table, but when that was done, Ole Doc could examine him in perplexity. Other than diet, which was eypsum, Ole Doc knew nothing about the slave. The antennae were not injured. The arms were bruised but whole. The legs appeared sound. But there was a chipped look about the chest which. argued grave injury. Hip- pocrates was physician to himself and know- ing this Ole Doc went back to the tiny cabin off the galley. = _He found some amulets which looked like witchcraft and a bottle which his keen nose identified as diluted ink with a medical dosage on the label. He found some chalky looking compresses and some white paint. Completely beaten he went back and sat down beside the table. Hippocrates’ heart was beating more faintly. : His anxiety becoming real now, like a hand around his throat, Ole Doc hurried to the galley. He had seen Hippocrates tipsy a few times and that meant a stimulant. But it wasn’t a stimulant which Ole Doc found. The letter was addressed in plain lingua spacia. Bestin Karjoy, Malbright, Diggs Import Co. Minga, Arphon. By Transcript Corporation of the Universe charge U.M.S. O.D.M. Dear Human Beings: Forty-six years ago you had one Bestin Karjoy of my people doing your accounts. Please to give same Bestin this message. Hello, Bestin. How are you? I am fine. I have not been feeling too good lately because of the old complaint and if your father still employ with you you tell him Hippocrates needs to come see him and get some advice. My master got birthday today so I give him happy birthday with nine hundred and five candles which surprise you for human but you know how big and famous he is and anyway I can come in a gig tonight and see you about down-dark halfway on park front because I = know where you really live and you ather.... The cake must have demanded something there for it stopped in a blot. “At five dollars a word outer space rates!” exclaimed Ole Doc. But when he had read it through he was willing to have it at five hundred a word. He hastened back to the operating table and put the gypsum and mustard close to hand, stacking with it water, the diluted ink and a call phone turned on to the band of his own, propping up a note: “Hold on, old fellow. I’m returning with your friend Bestin or his father. I'll stay tuned on this phone.” His hand annoyed him as he tried to write with it and when the note had been placed he plunged his arm to the elbow into a Catalyst vat and felt the painful prickling which meant a too fast heal. It would scar at this speed but what was a scar? . He saw that the gig, which had been on the side away from the blast, was unin- jured, and he had almost launched it when he saw it would never do to go demanding things in his present charred state. Impatiently he threw on a new shirt, boots EOMmichbooksaco