Astounding British Edition, Vol. 6, No. 8 — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

46 | ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION of it far beyond the town limits and the winds would do more. To the east was a large expanse of greenhouse glass and a monocular told him it was surrounded by Persephon guards and a_ high, electrified fence. Comon sense told him that ragweed was grown there in large quantities. “Well?” said Tinoi. “Ain’t I ever going to get that drink?” “You were right,” said Ole Doc. “It’s too strong. I’m satisfied. Let’s go.” =~ Tinoi grunted with relief and started down. Then he changed his mind and stood aside to let Ole Doc into the elevator first. But Tinoi went just the same. He went very inert with a beautiful uppercut to hoist him and lay him down against the far wall. Ole Doc rubbed his gloved knuckles as he turned Tinoi over with his foot. The cranial! structure told him much. Tinoi had been © born and bred in the slums of Earth. “Ragweed,” said Ole Doc. ordinary ragweed. And the older a race gets » the more it suffers from allergies. Tinoi, Con- noly, Big Lem himself—Earthmen.” He was séarching Tinoi’s pockets now and he came up with a drug so ancient and common that at first he didn’t recognize it and thought it was cocaine. The analyzer set him right. “Benadryl!’® said Ole Doc in amazement. ““Ragweed, and here’s benadryl: Earthman to begin with and not very susceptible. Benadryl to keep him going and to prevent a serious case of asthma. Air—asthma—oxygen for asthma, benadryl for asthma— But it can’t be air in those bombs. It wasn’t benadryl.” He pushed “Basement” and descended. The door opened on a storeroom guard. He took Tinoi’s blaster and put a neat and silent hole through the Persephon guard who stood outside the basement storeroom. The guard had alerted, had seen the body on the floor when the elevator opened and had not .had time to shoot first. Ole Doc shot the lock off the storeroom door. And it was there that he came afoul of another ancient custom. A bell started ringing faintly somewhere in the upper regions of the building. For a moment fe was not alarmed for he had safely by-passed all the offices in the eleva- tor. And then he saw a wire dangling, cut P ene opened door. An old-fashioned burglar alarm! He grabbed up a black bomb with its A.L. lettering and sprinted for the elevator. But the door closed before he got there and the car went up without him, carrying Tinoi’s » unconscious message. Old Doc was shaken into the mistaken idea that this place was further guarded by as for he began to sneeze. Then he saw that Fis helmet was not sealed tight and hastily _ repaired it. Ragweed. He was sneezing from the solution of pollen which still stained his “Common, giove. A heavier dose would have left him gasping and as it was his eyes watered and he staggered as he fumbled for the stair door. It crashed toward him and three Perse- phons leaped out of the.areaway. It was not iair to them just as it had not been fair to their brothers that morning. Ole Doc gripped the searing-hot blaster, picked up the weapons of the first fallen one, stepped over the other two bodies and started on up the stairs. The top door was locked and he shot it open. The clerk screamed and thrust back away from him for they saw murder in his old- young eyes, Big Lem was frozen in his office entrance. The burglar alarm gonged clang-clang:clang with furious strength over them all. “What's in this?” shouted Ole Doc, thrust- ing out the bomb. 3 “Put that gun down!” bawled Tolliver. “What the devil’s wrong—”’ _ Ole Doc heard in his keyed up phone the tiny whisper of leather above the clanging gong. He spun sideways and back and the shot intended for him fired the wood beside Big Lem Tolliver. — Connoly the gunner was ponderously wheeling for a second shot. Ole Doc snapped a quick one across his chest. Connoly’s face vanished in a dirty black gout of smoke. He somersaulted backwards down the front steps and landed, dead but still writhing, in the midst of the slaves he had not had time to herd away and now would herd no more. Ole Doc was still skipping backwards to avoid a counterattack by Big Lem. The eleva- tor door clanged shut and Tolliver was gone. Ole Doc headed for the stairs and took them four at a time, cloak billowing out behind him. He had wasted too much time already. But he couldn’t leave this build- ing until— They weren’t on the second floor. Nor the third. But the switch box for the elevator was. Ole Doc shattered its smooth glass with a shot and finished wrecking it with another. Voltage curled and writhed and smoke rose bluely. That done he went on up with confidence. The only Persephons he found fied down a fire escape in terror, Ole Doc went on up. The roof door was barricaded and he shot it in half. Big Lem Tolliver might have been the biggest man on Arphon but he didn’t have the greatest courage. He was backing toward the “machine” and holding out his hands to fend off a shot as though they could. “You're not playing fair!” he wailed. “You see the racket and you want it all. You're not playing fair! I'll make it halves—”’ “You'll face around and let me search you for a gun,” said Ole Doc. “And then we’ll get about our business. You’ve violated—”’ “You want it all!’’ wailed Tolliver, back- ing through the door of the dome. He tried to shut it quickly but Ole Doc blew the hinges off before it could close. (COMMC KOO KSECO)