Astounding Science Fiction, February 1952 (British Edition) — page 37: what you’re looking at

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

THE BODYGUARD 35 superstitious. My father brought me up to believe only what I tested myself, and con- sequently I have no faith in mysterious radiations in the air, which can’t be seen or felt, but nevertheless cause death. And if I kept quiet about that opinion, it’s be- cause I have learned that it does not pay to oppose the beliefs of other men unless there is a definite, practical reason for it. I felt no qualms, therefore, about going into the Ruins, but at the same time I knew that finding a man in that maze of broken buildings was not an easy task. “How much time have I got?” I asked him. “Whatever you need.” I figured I'd better get going right away. The Chief always tries to sound very gener- ous about everything, but I knew he’d want results quickly. If I didn’t produce, some- one else would. He hadn’t told me what the payoff would be, and I knew better than to ask him, but in a thing like this the reward if any is determined by the way you do your job. When I Jeft the room, Norma was whis- pering in the Chief’s ear again, her eyes om me, and he was listening carefully and nodding. Sooner or later I'd be able to guess what she was telling him. I went to the stables and got my best horse, a gray, named Nick because one ear had been nicked by an arrow in a tax brush with the whisky distillers. The black- smith was pounding at his anvil nearby, and stopped to wave to me. “Got me a lot of new iron, Tom,” he called. “Where'd you get it?” “Dug up some machinery near the Old Men’s highway. Plenty knives and horse- shoes soon.” I told him to save some for me, because I might be needing new equipment when I came back. I put a bedroll on Nick, and a good spear in the saddle socket. My gun was in the shoulder holster, and I had a very fine knife almost eighteen inches long in the blade. I don’t carry a bow, because I’m a poor shot, and | prefer to stick to weapons [I can handle better than other men, not worse. Then I started off at a canter to the southwest. jt was my intention to start my search at the old Johnson place, which I under- stood had been abandoned since shortly after the redhead disappeared. It seemed to me that he’d had a family, but I had no idea what may have happened to them. Because I had assumed his disappearance was due to the action of the Chief, it was natural to assume also that his family had been murdered. That’s the way the Chief works; he tries to take no chances. Riding through the countryside, I noticed that the burned areas were getting harder to spot. Nature was coming back, like my father always said it would. Even when | was a boy the burned areas were already green during the rains, and now the shrub- bery, and young trees, were beginning. The Wars of the Old Men took place when my grandfather was a boy and I am told that, at that time, the skies were dark with smoke for months in a row. It is not possible to doubt that the Old Men had wonderful things. Their relics are everywhere, like the Chief’s car which once supposedly could travel under its own power. Then, take the buildings: many are faced in part with stone which simply is unobtainable anywhere around here. It must have been transported from a quarry in the mountains, and the nearest source of good stone for building is at least a two-days’ ride. My father, who was a very keen man and also, of course, had learned much from his father, said that the Old Science Fiction* The Best Science Fiction Stories Edited by E. F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty : Space Travel and the Wonders of the Future. Con- tributors inclade Robert Moore Williams, Clifford Simak, Robert Spencer Carr, ete. 256 pages. 8s. 6d. Men Against The Stars Edited by Martin Greenberg: The Future Conquest of Space as men reach for the Stars. Contributors include Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, L. Ron Hubbard, etc. 256 pages. _ 8s. 6d. The Voyage of The Space Beagle By A. E. van Vogt: A full length adventure of life in Outer Space by an ace Science Fiction writer. 256 pages. 8s. 6d. GRAYSON & GRAYSON LTD. 16 Maddox Street, W.1 XK pees O COMnnie DOOKSaE©