Astounding British Edition, May 1953 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

ee he - oe, "~~. “ o- i? < eee ee ne - Oe Me aa pale We pr $5 Se re — se — ee Ea MR AN 3.7. pac ane we eo > Lg pe a Are A aye CN eee Cen * ; _ x‘ 2 ° through the scattering of papers inside. “In physics the march is steadily upward! Red-faced, he turned to Berk. “This is We have no doubt as to which way lies absurd! Certainly there would be charts, ess.” papers, or something showing the man’s Berk let that one ride. A man who saw calculations. These instruments are not here in the world such terrible simplicity might for show; they’ve obviously been used. ultimately find Dunning’s mystery com- Someone has removed the computational pletely transparent. He couldn’t risk that material from this room!” possibility by arguing. “It’s just as we found it,” said Berk. “We They drew up to the old mansion Dunning don’t understand it any better than you.” 4) Wd eu dy oli} M ‘1 1 d wa RK : pi iap eta TREN ide lad gt dee uses { hy is ¥ my x) 4 _ through the doorway. “Why would any man Dykstra almost ran through the adjoin- want two such laboratories as these?” ing door as if escaping some devil with His inspection was much more thorough whom he had come face to face. Then, _ than that of any of the others, including catching sight of the titles here, he began ___ Martin Nagle. Berk supposed that Mark and to breathe easily and with an audible sighing _ many of the others would be back, but of relief. He was among friends. Dykstra was going through with a fine With an air of reverence, he took down toothed comb the first time. a worn copy of Weyl’s “Space Time Matter,” He poked through the machine shop. and a reissue of the relativity papers. “Well equipped,” he muttered, “for a man “It isn’t possible,” he murmured, “that had occupied. Dykstra surveyed it from the “I don’t believe it,” said Dykstra flatly. a car. “The kind of a place you would expect,” The reaction of the physicist to the library he grunted. was the thing Berk was most interested in. ee S It was difficult to estimate what was going He let Dykstra look at will over the strange On in the physicist’s mind as he came into and exotic collection of volumes. ___ the Jaboratories. At first Dykstra reacted like a suddenly Sse In the first room he scanned the shelves caged animal. He ran from the shelves of | Of reagents. He took down a dozen bottles mythology, got a glance at the section on and examined their labels closely. Of some astrology, hurried from there to the books he removed the stoppers and sniffed on faith-healing, and made a spiral turn cautiously, then replaced them all on the that brought him up against the region of shelf in mild disdain. material on East Indian philosophy. = He spent a long time examining the frac- “What is this,” he bellowed hoarsely, “a __ tionating setup in the center of the room. joke?” : He spotted the pad of computations left The pudgy figure seemed to swell visibly ___ there and drew an envelope from his pocket with indignation. _- and did some comparison scribbling. “The next room would interest you most, “S In the electronics room he turned to look perhaps,” said Berk. © __ who likes to tinker.” Dunning owned and understood both of = But he was highly impressed by the com-__ these libraries.” puter room. He examined the settings of “He understood and conquered gravity,” the instruments and the chart papers. He said Berk. “And this is the place in which 5 Sie rn ae ge eee he did it. This is the last of the clues we aes 33 | TAKE THIS COUPON TO YOUR | have to show you. NEWSAGENT OR POST DIRECT TO: | Dykstra put the books carefully back on the shelves. “I don’t like it.” He glanced ATLAS back to the other room as if it were a place | Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd. | of terror. — | 18 Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4 | “*There’s something wrong,” he murmured. aa | enclose cheque/P.O.-value 10/6. Kindly arrange | ‘‘Antigravity! Whoever heard of such a = | for me one year's subscription (twelve issues) to: | thing? And how could it come out of a | Astounding SCIENCE FICTION | lee like this?” commencing with the next issue. | = (NAME) Oeerensseenennsnescnsessepeneenenened ateeanensuboecnonseneete hsenehsenseeesresenes: IV. ef [ I nin Sreenicciaes stapenasinc caresses ie | te rerestersteceeneseernesrstseseeseeerrnencersermensseomeene | THAT afternoon, they met again in confer- | L FSS see ae Sek LISS ———! ence. There was agreement that they would COMME DOO KS GEC} = ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FiCTION — —. Te at which genius ends and nonsense opened every desk drawer and shuffled Im