Astounding Science Fiction, February 1952 (British Edition) — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

THE BODYGUARD 43 and he had all the farmers Molly had gathered. The result was easy to see. It was two weeks later that I stood in the Official again. The blood had been washed off the floor, but it seemed to me that I could still smell it. The room was different in another way, too, because now Johnson sat in the big chair, and Molly stood beside him. “J wish you’d change your mind, Tom,” said Johnson. “I’m going,” I said. “We could use you.” “You've got Joe Wentworth,” I said. “He’s better than I am. You’ve got a gun now, too.” J pointed at the Chief’s gun, which he was wearing. “But you could help, Tom,” said Johnson. “We can get a new world started here. We're not the only people left alive in this continent. There must be other groups, many groups, across the mountains to the east. We can join them all together, get a Nation like the Old Men had.” “Let him alone, Pa,” said Molly. She came over and put her hands on my shoulders. Her face wasn’t bruised any more, and she was very good-looking, though she was skinny as ever. “Your chest feel all right now, Tom?” “Sure,” I said. “I can travel fine.” ““What’s the trouble, Tom?” said Johnson. “You know how much we'd like your help in this. We’ve got a lot to do. Set up schools, set up proper authority, see that sound laws are made, explore the Ruins—” _ “Look,” I said, “I quit being a Bodyguard when the Chief swiped me across the face with a gun barrel. By any other name, it’s still Bodyguarding you want me for. I’ve got nothing against you, Johnson. You won’t order any killings just for the fun of it. But I don’t go for your ideas.” “What ideas?” “You think we had trouble because we had bad government. You think good government will make people better. I don’t see it that way. The trouble is not bad government, but just government itself. With the wrong kind of people, no govern- ment can do any good. With the right kind of people, you don’t need government at all. “You think you can get the right kind of people by starting from the government end, and telling them to go to school, and putting out Bodyguards to walk the fields and keep people straight. I think you’ve got to start from the other end, forget the Old Men and the way they worked things, forget about organizations and just start raising people right. Like my father wanted to raise me, to be a man and not an animal. “Johnson, you want to bring back the days of the Old Men, but I'm glad the Old Men are gone, and I hope they never come back. I had enough killing right here, in this room. I’m not interested in any more, for any purpose.” = I ripped my gun out of its holster and threw it on the table before Johnson. “Here,” I said, “keep this one until the books teach you to make some more.” “Ym sorry,’ said Johnson. “[m really SOIry.” I turned around and went out, down the stairs and into the sunshine. The air smelled good. I saw that Molly had followed me. “That’s the longest speech I ever heard you make,” she said. “The last, too.” “Where are you going now?” “Fast. To the mountains. Where I used to live with my father.” “You got a wife there, maybe?” “No. You got somebody?” “No.” : We looked at each other, and then we both began to laugh. | Introducing : 128 PAGES OF AMUSING AND ABSORBING TALES FROM ) STREET & SMITH’S FAMOUS MAGAZINE OF FANTASY FICTION UNRNOWN WORKDS ||‘AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN FANTASY FOR GROWNUPS’ BRITISH 246) EDITION | ON SALE AT ALL NEWSAGENTS | EARLY MARCH PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTING | CO. LTD. | 18 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4 | | ATLAS Neate | ONE Oe: RE OA IS emt EoOmichbooks sco